Won, ringgit rise

The South Korean won rose on Wednesday as exporters and speculators took advantage of recent corrections in regional currencies as commodities and stocks rebounded amid a sustained bullish outlook for emerging Asian currencies. Regional currencies cut some of their earlier gains as investors covered dollar-short positions after data indicated China's economy is cooling.
They may suffer more falls as investors build up more dollar-short positions to cover, but the bullish trend of regional currencies remains intact, dealers and analysts said. Emerging Asian currencies, which had enjoyed solid demand on stronger economic growth and policymakers' measures to contain inflation, experienced corrections along with recent falls in commodities and the euro.
The euro's rise is under pressure from possible negative news on the prospects of member countries' efforts to help Greece and other financially troubled countries. South Korean central bank is expected to raise interest rates on Friday, a private survey of the country's bond market traders showed earlier. The won rose against the dollar on demand from exporters such as shipbuilders and as speculators entered fresh dollar-short positions.
Some local interbank speculators dumped dollar-long positions to stop losses, providing further support to the South Korean currency. The won is expected to stay in the recent range of 1,060 per dollar and 1,090, dealers in Seoul said. The South Korean currency weakened to as soft as 1,091.0 on dollar-short covers on Friday, four days after hitting 1,064.9, the strongest since August, 2008. The ringgit gained as interbank speculators entered fresh dollar-short positions amid a rebound in Asian stocks and commodities. But the ringgit gave up some rises after China's data, and after Malaysia's industrial output data showed March factory production growth moderated.