Asian stocks, FX tepid ahead of key central bank meetings
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S. Korea, Taiwan shares lead declines
Asian currencies struggle for direction
Indonesian rupiah, Thai baht biggest losers
By Roushni Nair
July 30 (Reuters) -Stocks in South Korea and the Philippines slid nearly 1% on Tuesday, leading declines across Asia's emerging markets, while the focus remained squarely on key central bank policy decisions that left already unnerved investors unsure about taking on riskier bets.
Currencies in the region were largely rangebound as uncertainty around the midweek monetary policy meetings at the Bank of Japan (BOJ) and the U.S. Federal Reserve sent investors scurrying for the safety of the dollar.
The dollar index =USD -- which measures the currency against a basket of peers -- inched up 0.2% to 104.7.
The Indonesian rupiah IDR= and Thailand's baht THB=TH fell more than 0.2% each.
The Malaysian ringgit MYR= was the outlier, advancing 0.3% to its highest since January on the back of U.S. rate cut expectations and domestic growth prospects.
Traders eased long-held bets against the Japanese yen JPY=, helping the frail currency, on near-certain expectations that the Fed will start lowering interest rates from September.
The yen is set to add nearly 4% in value so far in July, making it among the best-performing currencies. It, however, retreated by 0.7% as the BOJ began its two-day meeting.
Shares in Asia slipped, with those in the Philippines .PSI and Indonesia .JKSE down more than 0.8% each, while shares in South Korea .KS11 fell 0.9%.
Taiwan .TWII was an outlier with a 0.3% gain, rebounding after earlier touching their lowest in over a month.
A diverse set of factors has sparked market anxiety over how stretched valuations in Big Tech might be, against a backdrop of rising U.S.-China trade tensions and tepid earnings.
"This underscores the benefit of diversification into Asian credit assets, which are less exposed to global equity volatility, and are also not the target of flighty carry trades," Eugene Leow Senior Rates Strategist at DBS wrote.
Asian credit's lack of correlation with the yen and tech stocks also suggests that the market is not seeing concentrated positions by hedge funds, Leow added.
Investors are awaiting a slew of regional economic data, including Taiwan's growth figures and China's manufacturing data on Wednesday, followed by inflation readings from Indonesia and South Korea on Thursday and Friday, respectively.
Overseas, the Fed is widely expected to resort to a dovish hold in its policy decision on Wednesday, but the focus will be on its commentary around the timing of rate cuts.
Declining U.S. interest rates would take the shine off the dollar with the rate differential narrowing against emerging Asian nations.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields rise 2.5 basis points to 6.936%
** Japan June labour data mixed and shrugged off by a market focused on the BOJ
Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0627 GMT | ||||||
COUNTRY | FX RIC | FX DAILY % | FX YTD % | INDEX | STOCKS DAILY % | STOCKS YTD % |
Japan | JPY= | -0.61 | -8.96 | .N225 | 0.15 | 15.73 |
China | CNY=CFXS | -0.03 | -2.27 | .SSEC | -0.75 | -3.52 |
India | INR=IN | +0.00 | -0.62 | .NSEI | 0.46 | 14.81 |
Indonesia | IDR= | -0.25 | -5.64 | .JKSE | -0.54 | -0.32 |
Malaysia | MYR= | +0.35 | -0.67 | .KLSE | -0.09 | 11.58 |
Philippines | PHP= | -0.10 | -5.58 | .PSI | -1.01 | 2.05 |
S.Korea | KRW=KFTC | -0.12 | -7.03 | .KS11 | -0.92 | 3.19 |
Singapore | SGD= | -0.07 | -1.88 | .STI | 0.11 | 6.41 |
Taiwan | TWD=TP | -0.05 | -6.54 | .TWII | 0.27 | 23.94 |
Thailand | THB=TH | -0.17 | -5.02 | .SETI | 0.35 | -7.35 |
Graphic: World FX rates https://tmsnrt.rs/2RBWI5E
Asian stock markets https://tmsnrt.rs/2zpUAr4
Reporting by Roushni Nair in Bengaluru; Editing by Sonali Paul and Savio D'Souza
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