* Thai baht, S. Korean won at 2-week high * Malaysia stocks up over 4% so far * Asian equities largely steady By Roushni Nair Jan 30 (Reuters) - Most Southeast Asian currencies steadied on Tuesday as investors held tight ahead of the U.S. Federal Reserve's policy decision later this week, although the South Korean won and Thai baht made gains in the thin trading environment. The won advanced as much as 0.5% to notch a 2-week high, although the local unit is on track to log its worst month since August. The baht followed suit, marking its highest in two weeks. The baht had recently been squeezed by fiscal uncertainty after the Bank of Thailand faced repeated requests from the government to cut rates amid concerns of a weakening economy. The Taiwanese dollar rose 0.3% to mark a more than two-week high. With the beginning of Fed's meeting on Tuesday, focus shifts to Chair Jerome Powell's press conference on Wednesday for cues on whether the central bank fans or dials back market expectations around an imminent interest rate cut. The dollar index was largely flat by 0423 GMT. In Asia, stocks came under pressure after a Hong Kong court-ordered the liquidation of debt-laden property developer China Evergrande. Shares in Shanghai dipped as much as 1%, marking its biggest intra-day percentage drop in a week. The MSCI Emerging Markets (EM) Index, which captures large- and mid-cap representation across 24 EM countries, traded down as much as 0.6% to mark its biggest intra-day percentage drop in over a week. Shares in India, Thailand and South Korea were largely flat. Malaysian stocks are on track to log their best month in five, adding more than 4% in value so far this week. Equities in Indonesia and the Philippines inched up 0.3%, although Indonesian shares were on track to end January weaker, snapping two straight months of gains. "Asia equities, especially A50 and Hang Seng, have plenty of room for further inflows, which should keep KRW, TWD and even THB supported onshore," analysts at Citi said in a note. The regional calendar for the week includes purchasing managers' indexes, fourth quarter growth figures from Taiwan and Hong Kong and inflation figures from Indonesia and South Korea taking the centre stage. Elsewhere, the rupiah was largely flat, in line with regional moves. It lost more than 1% over the past week on uncertainties around the fiscal outlook driven by reports the country's finance minister may resign. In the Philippines, the peso was flat. The country on Tuesday upwardly revised its third quarter gross domestic product growth to 6.0% from 5.9%, according to its statistics agency. HIGHLIGHTS: ** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields mostly held steady at 6.627% ** Philippines Q4 agricultural output value rises 0.7% y/y ** Indonesia c.bank to continue with FX intervention - governor Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0421 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDEX STOCKS STOCKS DAILY % YTD % DAILY YTD % % Japan +0.10 -4.26 0.29 8.54 ChinaIndia +0.00 +0.09 -0.06 -0.03 Indonesi +0.16 -2.44 0.27 -1.33 a Malaysia +0.13 -2.88 -0.04 4.13 Philippi +0.04 -1.76 0.32 3.13 nes S.Korea Singapor +0.05 -1.49 0.31 -2.78 e Taiwan +0.27 -1.40 -0.23 0.82 Thailand +0.28 -3.30 -0.09 -2.88 (Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru. Editing by Sam Holmes)
Delayed 05:00:00 2024-04-26 pm EDT | 5-day change | 1st Jan Change | ||
1.069 USD | -0.32% | +0.46% | -3.11% |
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Apr. 26 | Wall Street: the worst week of 2024 is followed by the best | CF |
Stocks mentioned in the article
Price
|
Change
|
5d. change
|
Capi.
| ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
17,651 PTS | +2.12% | +8.80% | - | ||
2,686 PTS | +0.86% | +0.34% | - | ||
1,376 KRW | +0.41% | -0.09% | - | ||
1,042 USD | +1.26% | +2.25% | - | ||
1,007 KRW | 0.00% | +0.64% | - | ||
899.3 KRW | +0.57% | +1.68% | - | ||
690.6 USD | +1.81% | -2.01% | - | ||
39.53 THB | -0.35% | +0.99% | - | ||
36.99 THB | -0.05% | +0.51% | - | ||
24.17 PTS | +0.14% | +2.22% | - | ||
16.51 KRW | 0.00% | +0.07% | - | ||
7.246 CNY | +0.10% | +0.11% | - | ||
1.249 USD | -0.12% | +0.47% | - | ||
1.069 USD | -0.32% | +0.46% | - | ||
0.731 USD | 0.00% | +0.56% | - | ||
0.6532 USD | 0.00% | +1.81% | - | ||
0.5938 USD | 0.00% | +0.88% | - | ||
0.163 HKD | -20.87% | -.--% | 275M | ||
0.012 USD | 0.00% | 0.00% | - | ||
- PTS | -.--% | +1.02% | - | ||
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