Most emerging Asian currencies inched lower on Wednesday, with sentiment largely subdued as investors continued to grapple with worries over the Sino-US trade dispute and the global economic outlook. Any early hopes of headway in trade talks were doused after China's foreign ministry reiterated on Tuesday that it had not heard of any recent telephone call between the United States and China on trade.
"Markets continue to trade in a nervous fashion as investors struggle to deal with the almost daily see-sawing of global trade prospects," Nick Twidale, director and co-founder at trading firm Xchainge, said in a note. "The one certainty for traders at the moment seems to be uncertainty." Asian units came under added pressure as the dollar against a basket of currencies recovered slightly to trade at 98.068 by 0531 GMT.
The Thai baht slipped 0.3% and was the session's worst performer, running out of steam after notching three straight sessions of gains. The Korean won fell as much as 0.2% as its political and economic feud with neighbouring Japan deepened. South Korea summoned Japan's ambassador to protest a decision to remove Seoul's fast-track export status, which took effect on Wednesday.
Earlier this month, Japan dropped South Korea from a so-called "white list" of favoured trade partners, which prompted a tit-for-tate retaliation from South Korea. Currencies of net oil importers came under pressure as crude prices ticked higher. The Indian rupee and Indonesian rupiah slipped 0.2% and 0.1%, respectively.
Meanwhile, the Chinese yuan inched up against the dollar after the central bank's official midpoint fix was firmer-than-expected, widely seen as an official attempt to slow the pace of depreciation. The central bank's firmer guidance lifted the yuan up for the first time in 10 days. In onshore spot trade, the yuan gained nearly 0.1%.
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