* Thai baht hits lowest since Dec 21 * Bangkok stocks hit near 4-week low * Shanghai stocks down 0.9% By Echha Jain Jan 8 (Reuters) - The Thai baht slipped to a near three-week low on Monday, extending its losing streak into the second week of the year, after the country's prime minister said rate hikes had not helped the economy and called for rate cuts. Currencies in the rest of the emerging Asian markets started the week largely flat while equities were mixed, with investors globally reassessing their U.S. rate cut bets. The Singaporean dollar, the Philippine peso and the Indian rupee were largely unchanged, while the Indonesian rupiah ticked down 0.1%. Stocks in Shanghai slipped 0.9%, while those in Singapore, Manila and Kuala Lumpur added between 0.1% and 0.5%. The Thai Baht depreciated 0.5% to hit 34.935 per U.S. dollar, their lowest level since Dec. 21. Stocks in Bangkok fell 0.9% to post their biggest intraday loss since December 13. Thai Prime Minister Srettha Thavisin, seeking to spur growth in Southeast Asia's second-largest economy, urged the central bank to consider cutting interest rates as inflation remained very low. Pipat Luengnaruemitchai, an emerging Asia economist at Bank of America, expects the Bank of Thailand to "disregard the recent disinflation trend and maintain its hawkish stance for the time being", adding that the chance of a rate cut would be high in the second-half of the year. Meanwhile, data from the United States last week showed employers hired more workers than expected in December while raising wages at a solid clip, casting some doubt on expectations that the Federal Reserve would start cutting key interest rates in its March meeting. A reading on U.S. inflation due later in the week could again alter those views. Alex Loo, a macro strategist at TD Securities, said they suspect moves in the Asian emerging market currencies may be contained until the inflation data. "Asian EM FX may be given a boost as USD bears are likely to pounce on a weak CPI which should benefit the likes of KRW and THB which has a higher sensitivity to USD moves," Loo said, referring to the South Korean won and Thai baht. Markets are now anticipating a 64% chance that the Fed could begin easing rates as early as March, compared to a nearly 90% chance a week ago, according to the CME FedWatch Tool. Elsewhere, the Taiwanese dollar appreciated 0.1% while stocks in Taipei advanced 0.4%. All eyes are on Taiwan's presidential and parliamentary elections on Jan. 13, taking place against the backdrop of increased military and political pressure from China to assert its sovereignty claims over the island. Markets are also looking forward to a stream of data due through the week, including Bank of Korea's base rate and inflation data from India and China. HIGHLIGHTS: ** Thai PM says c.bank rate hikes have not been good at all for the economy ** Iran's oil trade with China stalls as Tehran demands higher prices ** China pushes equity fund launches to support stock market -sources Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0415 GMT COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDE STOCKS STOCK DAILY YTD % X DAILY S YTD % % % Japan +0.10 -2.39 <.N2 - -0.24 25> ChinaEC> India +0.07 +0.14 <.NS 0.05 -0.04 EI> Indones -0.10 -0.84 <.JK -0.29 0.78 ia SE> Malaysi +0.09 -1.25 <.KL 0.49 2.76 a SE> Philipp +0.00 -0.40 <.PS 0.21 3.00 ines I> S.Korea 11> Singapo -0.12 -0.88 <.ST 0.10 -1.63 re I> Taiwan +0.12 -0.81 <.TW 0.43 -1.87 II> Thailan -0.47 -2.13 <.SE -0.92 -0.08 d TI> (Reporting by Echha Jain in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul)
MSCI TAIWAN (STRD)
Index
End-of-day quote MSCI 10:00:00 2024-04-26 am EDT | 5-day change | 1st Jan Change | ||
690.6 USD | +1.81% | +3.39% | +8.11% |
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Stocks mentioned in the article
Price
|
Change
|
5d. change
|
Capi.
| ||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
2,686 PTS | +0.86% | +2.29% | - | ||
1,376 KRW | 0.00% | +0.15% | - | ||
1,007 KRW | -0.00% | +0.77% | - | ||
899.4 KRW | +0.01% | +1.95% | - | ||
690.6 USD | +1.81% | +3.39% | - | ||
89.18 INR | 0.00% | +0.40% | - | ||
88.07 USD | +0.10% | +1.75% | - | ||
83.53 USD | 0.00% | +1.68% | - | ||
83.38 INR | 0.00% | +0.05% | - | ||
60.98 INR | -0.00% | +0.67% | - | ||
54.39 INR | -0.13% | +1.64% | - | ||
37.83 USD | -0.21% | +2.33% | 298B | ||
16.51 KRW | 0.00% | +0.10% | - | ||
7.246 CNY | 0.00% | +0.08% | - | ||
1.248 USD | -0.06% | +0.85% | - | ||
1.069 USD | +0.02% | +0.36% | - | ||
0.7311 USD | +0.01% | +0.44% | - | ||
0.6528 USD | -0.06% | +1.73% | - | ||
0.5945 USD | +0.12% | +0.78% | - | ||
0.012 USD | 0.00% | 0.00% | - | ||
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