Emerging Asian currencies were mixed on Thursday as worries of the deepening Europe crisis with differences of opinion on the European central bank's bond buying were offset by support from short-covering triggered by the euro's rebound. The South Korean won and the Singapore dollar were the biggest gainers in the group while the Indonesian rupiah was the session's worst performer.
The eurozone's debt problems continued to plague currency investors, who were awaiting the outcome of 11 billion euro ($14.88 billion) worth of auctions by Spain and France due today, which could provide clues on investor appetite for their bonds.
Emerging Asian currencies have been under selling pressure this week as French borrowing costs continued to rise on Wednesday and the European Central Bank's purchases of Italian and Spanish debts failed to reassure markets. Dollar/won turned lower on sales by South Korean exporters and some stop-loss offers with EUR and stocks rebounding, dealers said.
Earlier, the pair broke through a resistance zone between 1,135-1,140 on offshore funds' demand. But it failed to pierce the next resistance area between 1,145-1,151, where the low of September 20 and the 50.0 percent Fibonacci retracement level of its October slide sit.
US dollar/Singapore dollar also slid after it failed to completely clear a resistance at 1.3008, the 76.4 percent retracement of its October decline. Earlier, the pair rose to as high as 1.3010 after worse-than-expected export data. Dollar/Philippine peso turned lower as interbank speculators took profits. Initially, the pair broke above the top of the Ichimoku cloud on worries about deepening European debt crisis.