Investors halved their long positions on the South Korean won and cut bets on the Singapore dollar by almost as much, a Reuters poll showed on Friday, as worries about a global economic slowdown and the euro zone's fiscal crisis spurred a flight from riskier assets. Cautiousness ahead of a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke later on Friday also prompted investors to unwind some positions.
Currency players became more bearish on the Indian rupee, extending their long dollar/rupee position to the biggest since January 2009, the bi-weekly poll showed. The rupee hit an 11-month low on Thursday. They reduced their bets on all emerging Asian currencies in the last two weeks, according to the survey. Investors will be closely parsing Bernanke's speech later in the day at a central bankers conference in Jackson Hole, Wyoming, but the US central bank chief is not expected to announce more monetary stimulus to boost the sluggish economy. The poll asked 10 currency strategists to estimate how the market was positioned in eight Asian currencies against the dollar.
The survey measures estimates of the net long or short position in a currency on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long on dollars. The figures include positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).