Ringgit Heads for Weekly Loss as Fed Seen Tapering; Bonds Gain Malaysia’s ringgit headed for its biggest weekly loss in three before U.S. data that may bolster the case for the Federal Reserve to cut stimulus that has fueled fund flows to emerging markets. Government bonds rose. The MSCI Asia Pacific Index of stocks dropped for the first time in seven days ahead of a report today that analysts surveyed by Bloomberg forecast will show non-farm payrolls climbed 180,000 in August, after increasing 162,000 in July. The Federal Open Market Committee meets Sept. 17-18 to discuss its debt-purchase program. Malaysian exports increased 0.3 percent in July after a 6.9 percent contraction in June, according to another Bloomberg survey before data due today. “Bets on Fed tapering are the main play right now,” said Zulkiflee Nidzam, head of foreign-exchange trading at Asian Finance Bank Bhd. in Kuala Lumpur. “The improvement in local export data won’t have much impact on the ringgit.” The Malaysian currency fell 0.9 percent this week to 3.313 per dollar as of 9:27 a.m. in Kuala Lumpur, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. The ringgit dropped 0.2 percent today, extending its decline this quarter to 4.6 percent, the worst performance among Asia’s 11 most-traded exchange rates after Indonesia’s rupiah and India’s rupee. Foreign-exchange reserves data is due today. Malaysian had $137.9 billion reserves as of Aug. 15, down from $141.4 billion in May, the highest level in data compiled by Bloomberg going back to 1998. bloomberg/news/2013-09-06/ringgit-heads-for-weekly-loss-as-fed-seen-tapering-bonds-gain.html
Posted on: Fri, 06 Sep 2013 04:17:39 +0000
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