Table of Contents
By Anushka Trivedi
Sept 22 (Reuters) – Stock markets in Indonesia, Philippines and South Korea declined more than 1% on Tuesday as rises in coronavirus cases locally and globally dampened hopes of a swift economic recovery.
South Korean stocks .KS11, dropped 1.7% to lead falls across Asia’s emerging markets, while Jakarta’s main index .JKSE slid as much as 1.6% to its lowest level in almost two weeks.
The number of infections in the Philippines rose another 3,500 to top 290,000 on Monday, while Indonesia reported a record jump in cases despite moves to lock down parts of its capital.
Sentiment on stock markets globally worsened on Monday as the imposition of curbs in a number of European countries, along with a possible delay in fresh U.S. fiscal stimulus, weakened the prospects for recovery, said Margaret Yang, a strategist at retail trading platform IG.
Banking stocks weighed on Singapore’s FTSE Straits Times Index (STI).STI after DBS Group Holdings DBSM.SI was among the banks named in reports on Sunday that a number of major global lenders had moved more than $2 trillion in suspect funds over the past two decades.
The city-state’s top three lenders shed between 0.6% to 1.4% each. UOBH.SI, OCBC.SI
Demand for safe-haven assets boosted the U.S. dollar .DXY, causing most Asian currencies to falter, with the Thai baht THB=TH, Indonesian rupiah and the Malaysian ringgit MYR=MY dropping by 0.3% to 0.4%.
The Bank of Thailand (BoT) is expected to keep interest rates at a record low 0.5% on Wednesday.
Goldman Sachs analysts, writing in a note over the weekend, said they were looking to the BoT’s meeting for any insight into the central bank’s stance on unconventional monetary policy tools such as quantitative easing, corporate bond purchases and FX policy.
The Taiwan dollar TWD=TP was among outliers as it rallied 0.6%.
The island’s monthly export orders, a bellwether of global technology demand, grew at the fastest pace in more than two-and-a-half years as the global shift to homeworking during the pandemic strengthened tech businesses.
HIGHLIGHTS
** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields ID10YT=RR are up about 2.90 basis points at 6.906%
** In the Philippines .PSI, top index losers are Bloomberry Resorts Corp BLOOM.PS down 2.37% and Metro Pacific Investments Corp MPI.PS down 2.02%
** Top losers on the Jakarta stock index .JKSE include Global Teleshop Tbk PT GLOB.JK down 6.72% and Yanaprima Hastapersada Tbk PT YPAS.JK down 6.63%
Asia stock indexes and currencies at 0347 GMT
COUNTRY
FX RIC
FX DAILY %
FX YTD %
INDEX
STOCKS DAILY %
STOCKS YTD %
Japan
JPY=
+0.09
+3.88
.N225
0.00
0.29
China
CNY=CFXS
+0.29
+2.63
.SSEC
-0.12
8.61
India
INR=IN
+0.00
-2.72
.NSEI
0.00
-7.54
Indonesia
IDR=
-0.27
-5.77
.JKSE
-0.82
-21.29
Malaysia
MYR=
-0.34
-1.09
.KLSE
0.51
-5.14
Philippines
PHP=
-0.04
+4.54
.PSI
-1.07
-25.19
S.Korea
KRW=KFTC
-0.45
-0.58
.KS11
-1.66
6.92
Singapore
SGD=
+0.01
-1.28
.STI
-0.63
-23.36
Taiwan
TWD=TP
+0.61
+3.89
.TWII
-0.73
5.87
Thailand
THB=TH
-0.29
-4.47
.SETI
-0.05
-19.33
(Editing by Ana Nicolaci da Costa)
((Anushka.Trivedi@thomsonreuters.com; +918061823241;))
The views and opinions expressed herein are the views and opinions of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of Nasdaq, Inc.