BENGALURU: Indonesia’s rupiah hovered near its record low of 18,190 per dollar, while stocks fell more than 1 percent as investors weighed MSCI’s market-status warning and political developments in Brazil.
Investor attention in Brazil centred on the fallout from President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva’s election victory after Senator Flavio Bolsonaro, the right-wing candidate favoured by many investors, refused to concede.
Brazilian markets were yet to open, with the real up 6.4 percent so far this year and the benchmark Bovespa index 8.4 percent higher.
Markets continued to assess global index provider MSCI’s warning that Indonesian equities could be downgraded to “standalone” market status, while Bank Indonesia’s governor said on Monday the central bank remained present in the foreign-exchange market to maintain orderly supply and demand conditions.
The rupiah weakened to 18,125 per US dollar, hovering near its record low and extending its losses this year to about 8 percent.
Fesa said uncertainty over the outcome of MSCI’s review and the scale of any resulting equity outflows could keep the rupiah under pressure in the near term, despite Indonesia’s resilient sovereign-credit fundamentals.
Meanwhile, the Philippine peso hit a record low of 63.919 per US dollar. The currency has shed about 8 percent so far this year, making it one of the region’s weakest performers alongside the Indonesian rupiah.
Investors also await results from US technology heavyweights Alphabet and Microsoft for clues on spending related to the ongoing AI buildout.
Tech-heavy Taiwan was closed for a public holiday, while Philippine stocks and Singapore shares shed 1.5 percent and 0.3 percent, respectively.
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