Most emerging Asian currencies were steady to slightly higher on Friday, supported by improving risk appetites, with the Indonesian rupiah continuing to stabilise after its selloff early this week. Market sentiment toward emerging market (EM) currencies soured early in the week after sliding oil prices triggered volatility across asset classes and as a plunge in the Russian rouble spooked investors.
Asian currencies have regained some footing in the past couple of days after an upbeat economic assessment by the US Federal Reserve helped calm market nerves, and as oil and the rouble gained some respite from a punishing selloff. "The week is ending with a bit of calm back in the market, thanks to the semblance of stability in the rouble and a rebound in the EM FX space over the past couple of sessions," Sacha Tihanyi, senior currency strategist for Scotiabank said in a research note.
"Asian equities are pushing higher, while oil prices are hovering around their recent lows, but are at least not plunging further for the time being," he added. The Indonesian rupiah edged higher, pulling further away from a 16-year low of 12,930 touched on Tuesday according to Reuters data. The Indian rupee also rose slightly, and pushed away from a 13-month low of 63.89 set on Wednesday. Bucking the broader trend was the Malaysian ringgit, which edged lower versus the dollar.
A Reuters poll on Thursday showed that bearish bets on the ringgit rose slightly in the last two weeks and remained at their highest since the 2008-09 global financial crisis. The ringgit had hit a five-year low of 3.5040 versus the dollar last week on worries that sliding oil prices would hurt Malaysia's current account and fiscal deficit.