Most Asian currencies eased on Monday as strong US jobs growth data reinforced expectations for Federal Reserve interest rate hikes, while the South Korea's won was further weakened by record COVID-19 cases in the country.
The won dropped 0.2%, while its shares lost 0.3%, hurt by concerns over the surge in infections and the risk of quicker US rate hikes.
The US economy created more than expected jobs in January, despite disruptions to consumer-facing businesses from a surge in COVID-19 cases, increasing the chance of a larger Federal Reserve interest rate rise at the March policy meeting.
The Indonesia rupiah also weakened 0.1%, but held steady at that level as the country's fourth quarter gross domestic product growth accelerated 5%, slightly faster than expected, on the back of high commodity prices and the loosening of anti-virus curbs.
China's yuan steady on strong midpoint fixing, little impact from rate cut
The country's 10-year bond yield also rose to its highest since July.
Meanwhile, shares across the region were mixed, with China gaining strongly coming out of a week-long Lunar New Year break to rise about 2%, while Philippine stocks dipped about 1%, after rising nearly 3% last week.
Singapore Straits Times Index inched 0.3% higher driven by a 5% jump in the country's bourse operator's stock on upbeat results and a Citibank upgrade.
However, the Singapore dollar stayed largely flat on the back of rising COVID-19 cases in the country, with daily local cases increasing by three folds from the day before on Saturday.
Highlights:
** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields rise 5.90 basis points to 6.51%
** In the Philippines, top index gainers are Security Bank Corp up 2.7%, Bank of the Philippine Islands up 2%, Converge Information & Communications Technology Solutions Inc up ?1.96%
** Top gainer on the Singapore STI is Singapore Exchange Ltd up 5.1%
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