*
South Korean won leads laggards in Asian FX
*
U.S rebounds from two-month low
*
Philippines stocks buck trend
By Archishma Iyer
April 6 (Reuters) - Most Asian currencies and shares
were in the red on Thursday after investors turned to the safety
of the U.S. dollar following overnight data that hinted at
global recession.
However, trading was somewhat muted in the run-up to Easter
holidays in some major markets. In China, Asia's largest
economy, and Taiwan, trading resumed after a public holiday.
South Korea's won emerged as the biggest loser for
day so far, depreciating nearly 0.5%. That was closely followed
by Taiwan's dollar , which fell about 0.2%.
Other currencies, including the Singapore dollar , Malaysian ringgit and Indonesian rupiah , slipped as much as 0.2%. Slowing U.S. services sector data overnight, along with bleak private payrolls growth for March, strengthened the case for the U.S. Federal Reserve to consider pausing its aggressive interest rate hike path adopted to fight accelerating inflation. A raft of negative economic data since the start of the week has convinced more market participants of an impending recession, resulting in investors exiting riskier assets to take refuge in the greenback, which bounced off from a two-month low. "The Fed has done the bulk of the work raising rates and thus with demand impacted from tighter financial conditions, the Fed is likely to assess the hikes they have done, in light of weakness in financial stability and softness in the economy," said Natixis Senior Asia Economist Trinh Nguyen. The dollar index , which measures the strength of the greenback against six major currencies, was 102.00 at 0350 GMT. "For the past few weeks, weaker U.S. data tends to bring about weaker dollar via the Fed policy channel as markets pare bets on rate hikes," analysts from Maybank wrote in a client note. "However, that relationship seems to have shifted a tad as concerns of a sharper economic down cycle could also strengthen demand for the dollar."
In stock markets, most Asian shares fell victim to fear of a downturn in the global economy, with South Korea's KOSPI being one of the leading laggards, falling nearly 0.9%.
Indices in Singapore , Malaysia , Indonesia and China fell in a range of 0.1% to 0.6%. The Philippine index bucked the trend by rising 0.3%.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields fall to 6.676%
** Telkom Indonesia to merge broadband arm with Telkomsel to
create $3.9 billion entity
** Taiwan watching Chinese movement after Beijing denounces
U.S. Speaker meeting Asia stock indexes and currencies
at 0350 GMT
COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDEX STOCKS STOCKS
DAILY YTD % DAILY YTD %
% %
Japan +0.09 -0.06 -1.10 5.41
China <CNY=CFXS -0.04 +0.29 -0.04 7.18
>
India +0.14 +1.02 0.00 -3.03
Indonesi -0.20 +4.11 -0.14 -0.59
a
Malaysia -0.11 -0.05 -0.51 -4.90
Philippi -0.13 +2.15 0.25 -1.19
nes
S.Korea <KRW=KFTC -0.51 -4.00 -0.90 10.56
>
Singapor -0.13 +0.79 -0.45 1.62
e
Taiwan -0.20 +0.63 -0.39 11.80
Thailand -0.16 +1.72 -1.44 -5.84
(Reporting by Archishma Iyer in Bengaluru; Editing by Christopher Cushing)
