Asian FX, stocks gain ahead of Jackson Hole meet
Indonesia stocks hit record high
Taiwan dollar notches gains
China leaves benchmark lending rates unchanged
Updates at 0701 GMT
By Archishma Iyer and Sherin Sunny
Aug 20 (Reuters) - Indonesian stocks hit a record high on Tuesday among buoyant emerging Asian equities, while the rupiah led gains among currencies as investors looked out for further hints on a September rate cut by the Federal Reserve.
The MSCI International Emerging Market Currency Index .MIEM00000CUS rose 0.2% to touch a fresh record high, while the Indonesian rupiah IDR= gained as much as 0.5% to trade at 15,470 per dollar,hitting its highest since early January.
"We view the Asian currency rebound as a recovery of the losses from the Fed’s 'high for longer' rates stance in the first half of this year," senior FX Strategist Philip Wee from DBS wrote in a client note.
"There is scope for the South Korean won, Philippines peso and Indonesian rupiah to play catch up in recovering this year’s losses," he added.
Other currencies such as the Taiwan dollar TWD=TP rose 0.2%, while the Singapore dollar SGD= and the Philippine peso PHP= traded flat.
Investors will focus on the JacksonHole symposium later this week, where Fed Chair Jerome Powell is likely to acknowledge the possibility of a rate cut in the September meeting.
That could boostriskier Asian assets and drive a weakening trend in the dollar, with inflationalso easing in most emerging Asian economies.
The dollar index =USD drifted lower overnight, although it stayed steady during Asian hours at 101.96.
"(EM Asia) central banks have room to cut interest rates. However, they are not in a hurry as they are avoiding capital flow and exchange rate volatility and will likely only ease once U.S. policy interest rates begin easing," analysts from S&P Global Ratings said in a note.
Central banks in Thailand, Indonesia and South Korea are set to meetthis week, where all three are expected to stand pat on rates, contrasting with the Philippines' central bank decision to slash its main policy rate last week.
Moreover, inflation prints from Singapore and Malaysia during the week are likely to set the tone for their respective central banks' stances.
Elsewhere, China left its benchmark lending rates unchanged as expected. The yuan CNY=CFXS traded flat while stocks .SSEC fell almost more than 1%.
Among Asian shares, the Jakarta benchmark .JKSE advanced as much as 0.9% to a record high, and up for the third straight day. Manila stocks .PSI climbed as much as 1.7%, nestled near their early April highs.
Others such as Singapore .STI, Bangkok .SETI, Taipei .TWII and Seoul .KS11 traded between 0.1% and 0.8% higher.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** "We're going nowhere" - Thai opposition figuresays court interventions must stop
** Philippinesraises $442 mln from reissued T-bond offer
** BOJ highlights rising wage pressure from structural job market changes
Asian stocks and currencies 0701 GMT | ||||||
COUNTRY | FX RIC | FX DAILY % | FX YTD % | INDEX | STOCKS DAILY % | STOCKS YTD % |
Japan | JPY= | -0.29 | -4.04 | .N225 | 1.80 | 13.74 |
China | CNY=CFXS | -0.07 | -0.65 | .SSEC | -1.05 | -3.75 |
India | INR=IN | +0.11 | -0.68 | .NSEI | 0.54 | 13.69 |
Indonesia | IDR= | +0.48 | -0.48 | .JKSE | 0.85 | 3.54 |
Malaysia | MYR= | +0.18 | +5.03 | .KLSE | -0.24 | 13.07 |
Philippines | PHP= | +0.05 | -2.11 | .PSI | 0.80 | 7.67 |
S.Korea | KRW=KFTC | +0.13 | -3.38 | .KS11 | 0.83 | 1.56 |
Singapore | SGD= | -0.11 | +0.76 | .STI | 0.59 | 4.16 |
Taiwan | TWD=TP | +0.19 | -3.86 | .TWII | 0.09 | 25.09 |
Thailand | THB=TH | +0.03 | -0.57 | .SETI | 0.51 | -6.05 |
Reporting by Archishma Iyer and Sherin Sunny in Bengaluru; Editing by Stephen Coates and Nivedita Bhattacharjee
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