Rupiah firms as Indonesia considers lifting coal export ban, Singapore shares jump

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The rupiah led modest gains among

emerging Asian peers on Monday as Indonesia, the world’s top

thermal coal exporter, considered lifting its export ban on the

commodity, while financials drove Singapore shares up by 1%.

Currency markets fluctuated in the Asian trading session as

liquidity was thinned by a holiday in Japan. Malaysia’s ringgit

and the Indian rupee firmed 0.2%, while the

Thai baht and Taiwan’s dollar traded flat.

The U.S. dollar attempted to recover from Friday’s losses

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after a softer-than-expected jobs report worried investors,

though a rate hike by the Federal Reserve in March seemed to

have been fully priced in by markets.

Focus now shifts to U.S. inflation data due on Wednesday and

chair Jerome Powell and governor Lael Brainard speeches this

week regarding their nominations at the Fed.

“The dollar index is testing support at its 50-day moving

average level and looks vulnerable to the downside, which would

bode well for Asian currencies,” said Khoon Goh, head of Asia

research at ANZ.

“For the rupiah, the government is reviewing their coal

export ban, and if it is lifted at the end of the month, it will

be positive for the currency.”

The rupiah gained 0.2% after having shed 0.7% last

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week when Indonesia suspended coal exports on Jan. 1 after the

state-owned power utility reported dangerously low inventory

levels of the fuel.

Authorities in the country over the weekend discussed

overcoming logistics issues that have slowed efforts to

distribute coal, with talks set to resume on Monday.

Robust coal exports amid record high prices last year helped

Indonesia shore up a hefty trade surplus.

Singapore shares rose as much as 1.1% to hit a

seven-week high, rising for the third straight day, underpinned

by gains in banking stocks which tracked their U.S.

counterparts.

Inflation worries and the Fed’s hawkishness last week

prompted buying in shares like banks that usually perform well

in a high interest rate environment, while high-growth stocks

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such as tech were routed.

Similar concerns pushed South Korea’s tech heavy bourse

down 1% to its lowest since Dec. 2.

The won, however, steadied by 0.1% with markets

looking out to the Bank of Korea’s (BoK) monetary policy meeting

on Friday after it hiked rates in November to tamp down

inflation that’s running above the central bank’s target.

The BOK is unlikely to raise rates at this week’s meeting,

but would instead tighten towards the end of the first quarter,

ING analysts wrote in a note.

A 0.3% rise in China stocks helped Asian equity

markets, with the Philippine stock index climbing 1.4% to

lead overall gains in the region.

HIGHLIGHTS

** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields are up 3.9 basis

points at 6.461%​​

** Top gainers on Singapore’s STI: United Overseas

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Bank Ltd, up 2.9%, Oversea-Chinese Banking Corp Ltd

, up 1.7%, and DBS Group up ​1.5%

** In the Philippines, top index gainers are Robinsons

Retail Holdings Inc up 5.1% and Security Bank Corp

up 4.9%

Asia stock indexes and currencies

at 0849 GMT

COUNTRY FX RIC FX DAILY % FX YTD % INDEX STOCKS DAILY % STOCKS YTD %

Japan +0.29 -0.62 — —

China +0.05 -0.29 0.16 -1.50

India +0.21 +0.24 0.82 3.48

Indonesia +0.24 -0.50 0.23 2.06

Malaysia +0.19 -0.83 0.17 -1.40

Philippines -0.16 -0.80 1.37 -0.22

S.Korea +0.11 -0.95 -1.06 -1.82

Singapore +0.01 -0.46 0.77 3.40

Taiwan -0.04 -0.04 0.20 -0.07

Thailand +0.03 -0.83 -0.03 -0.03

(Reporting by Anushka Trivedi in Bengaluru)