Asia FX and stocks climb after banks rescue bolsters confidence

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Southeast Asian currencies and

stocks rose on Friday after multi-billion dollar lifelines for

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troubled banks eased stress on the global financial system and

shored up investor hopes that the U.S. Federal Reserve could

ease its rate-hike campaign.

The Philippine peso strengthened 0.5% and was set to

post its best week since Feb. 24. The Thai baht and

Indonesia’s rupiah were on track for their sharpest

weekly gains since Jan. 13.

“Swift actions by regulators and banks to stem the market

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turmoil could have contributed to market stability in Asia,”

analysts at Maybank said in a note.

The U.S. dollar index eased 0.3% after major U.S.

banks injected $30 billion in deposits into First Republic Bank,

to rescue the lender caught up in a widening crisis triggered by

the collapse of two other mid-size U.S. banks over the past

week.

Across the region, stock markets tracked Wall Street’s gains

overnight, but were set for weekly losses given the recent rout

in the global banking sector.

Malaysian shares gained as much as 1.5%, heading for

their best day in more than three months, while stocks in

Thailand advanced 0.4%, but faced their worst week in

five months.

Equities in Singapore added 0.7%, but were on track

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for their seventh consecutive weekly drop. The city-state said

its banks had insignificant exposure to troubled Swiss bank

Credit Suisse. Meanwhile, its non-oil domestic exports fell in

February as widely expected by analysts.

Analysts at Barclays said in note that soft export data

supported their expectation the Monetary Authority of Singapore

would not further hike rates in 2023, unless the February

inflation print exceeded the central bank’s projections.

Malaysian bonds emerged as a haven last month for foreign

investors in Asia on improving growth outlook and low prospects

of further policy rate hikes by the country’s central bank.

Malaysia’s 10-yr benchmark yield was unchanged

at 3.971%, while the ringgit was poised for its best week

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since Jan. 27.

Highlights

** Indonesia pledges policy transparency with new palm oil

exchange

** Indonesian 10-year benchmark yields up 16.2 basis points

at 6.984%​​

** BOJ’s Kuroda: Room to deepen negative rates further

Asia stock indexes and currencies

at 0629 GMT

COUNTRY FX RIC FX FX INDE STOCKS STOCKS

DAILY % YTD % X DAILY YTD %

%

Japan +0.59 -1.38 <.n2>

China EC>

India +0.32 +0.30 <.ns ei>

Indonesi +0.16 +1.40 <.jk a se>

Malaysia +0.38 -1.85 <.kl se>

Philippi +0.51 +1.90 <.ps nes i>

S.Korea 11>

Singapor +0.33 -0.16 <.st e i>

Taiwan +0.29 +0.54 <.tw ii>

Thailand +0.53 +1.07 <.se ti>

(Reporting by Navya Mittal in Bengaluru; Editing by Jamie Freed

and Subhranshu Sahu)