Asian currencies strong on trading

Story link: Asian currencies strong on trading

Asian currencies were generally up on Tuesday, helped by China’s revaluation of the renminbi and by equity inflows.

For example, the South Korean won was up 0.5 percent on the day and has risen 2.3 percent since July 21 to Won1,020 in relation to the US dollar.

Similarly, the Singapore dollar was also up 0.5 percent for the day and has gained 1.6 percent since July 21 to S$1.6525 against the US dollar.

The yen was up 0.9 percent to ¥111.30 in relation to the US dollar, gained 0.7 percent to ¥135.86 against the euro, and rose 0.6 percent to ¥197.27 in relation to sterling. The yen was helped by the possibility that the recent deflation plaguing the Japanese economy might well be on the way out.

The Chinese renminbi was a bit stronger than on Monday for its fourth slight gain in a row. It closed at Rmb8.1032 on Tuesday.

The US dollar, meanwhile, lost 0.3 percent to $1.2206 in relation to the euro and was down 0.3 percent to $1.7728 against sterling.

The dollar was weaker even though figures showed stronger personal income growth in the US in June. Some analysts see this as a sign that, for the present at least, the dollar has become impervious to good news.

The Australian dollar gained 0.6 percent against the US dollar, to stand at $0.7648 on the news that Australian retail sales were up a seasonally adjusted 1.3 percent in June when only a gain of 0.5 percent had been expected. Also the Australian trade deficit narrowed to A$1.37 billion in June, its lowest level since January 2003.