BENGALURU: Emerging Asian currencies slipped on Monday as higher oil prices weighed on energy importers, while South Korean and Taiwanese shares fell on growing concerns over the outlook for artificial intelligence.
The MSCI gauge of emerging-market currencies fell 0.1 percent as the dollar strengthened against major peers.
Oil prices climbed more than 3 percent after fresh strikes in Saudi Arabia and attacks on ships in the Gulf rattled markets, adding to concerns about disruptions to global energy supplies.
Higher oil prices are generally a headwind for emerging Asian economies that are mostly net energy importers, as they raise import bills, pressure external balances and weigh on regional currencies.
The Philippine peso weakened to a record low of 62.831 per US dollar, marking its third all-time low this month.
The Indonesian rupiah and the Taiwan dollar slipped 0.3 percent and 0.4 percent respectively. The South Korean won, the region’s best-performing currency this year, shed 0.4 percent.
Investors are now awaiting the Federal Reserve’s policy decision on Wednesday, with swaps pricing in a 86 percent chance of a 25-basis-point rate hike, the CME FedWatch tool showed.
The MSCI EM Asia equities index fell as much as 1.7 percent to its lowest level since late August, weighed down by a 3.3 percent drop in South Korea’s KOSPI, a key gauge of AI-related investment sentiment.
The losses came after the heads of OpenAI and Anthropic called for a slowdown in AI development to better manage the technology’s risks.
Taiwan’s benchmark index also shed 0.7 percent, dragged lower by a 1.2 percent decline in chip manufacturing giant TSMC .
Elsewhere, Indonesian stocks shed as much as 1.9 percent to their lowest level in more than two weeks, while Thailand’s benchmark lost 0.6 percent.
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