*
Singapore Feb industrial production falls
*
Malaysia Feb CPI higher than forecast
*
Equities in Asia mixed, Indonesian stocks soar
By Jaskiran Singh
March 24 (Reuters) - The Indonesian rupiah rose more than 1% on
Friday, aided by foreign inflows as trading resumed after a two-day holiday,
while most other Asian currencies were subdued over mixed signals from the U.S.
Federal Reserve about future rate hikes.
For the week, however, currencies in the region were set to eke out gains.
The Malaysian ringgit, the Thai baht, the Philippine peso
, and the Indonesian rupiah all were on track for their second
straight weekly rise.
Globally, traders continued to analyse Fed comments for clues about the U.S.
central bank's future monetary policy. Currently, markets are pricing in rate
cuts of accumulated 80 basis points to about 4% by the end of the year amid
fears that policy tightening and a brewing banking crisis could drive the U.S.
economy into a recession.
"Liquidity strains stemming from deposit flight have resulted in some duress
across U.S. and European banks. However, we see limited risks of contagion to
Asian banks, given different business models and risk factors," said Chang Wei
Liang, FX & credit strategist at DBS Group Research.
Malaysia posted a faster-than-expected rise in February consumer inflation
to 3.7%. In January, the consumer price index had also risen 3.7%.
"Given the sticky core inflation, we continue to expect the Bank Negara
Malaysia to deliver another 25 basis-point (bps) rate hike in May," said
analysts at Goldman Sachs.
"Although we see risk of a no hike should core inflation decelerate
significantly in the next couple months or if the BNM sees signs of banking
system instability."
Meanwhile, Singapore said its February industrial production (IP) fell 11.7%
month-on-month on a seasonally adjusted basis.
"IP collapsed in February, the main drag being the usually volatile
biomedicals cluster. That said, there are signs of a bottoming out in
semiconductor output," said Brian Tan, an analyst at Barclays Bank.
"We reduce our 2023 GDP growth forecast to 1.8% from 2.2% and continue to
expect the MAS (Monetary Authority of Singapore) to refrain from further FX
policy tightening in 2023."
The Bank of Thailand is expected to hike its interest rates by about 25 bps
at its policy meeting next week.
Equity markets in Asia were mixed, with Jakarta rising more than 1%,
while Malaysia dipped 0.6%.
HIGHLIGHTS:
** Thailand's $98 bln 2024 budget to be delayed over election
** Philippines says maritime friction with China can be addressed via
diplomacy
** Hong Kong on watch for any 'spillover' from US regional banks
Asia stock
indexes and
currencies
at 0645
GMT
COUNTRY FX FX FX INDEX STOCKS STOCKS
RIC DAILY YTD % DAILY % YTD %
%
Japan +0.40 +0.63 -0.13 4.95
China -0.32 +0.73 -0.60 5.75
India +0.00 +0.56 0.01 -5.67
Indonesia +1.09 +2.57 1.09 -1.25
Malaysia -0.18 -0.54 -0.58 -6.20
Philippines -0.05 +2.48 0.86 0.40
S.Korea -1.24 -2.30 -0.39 7.98
Singapore -0.13 +0.91 -0.03 -1.03
Taiwan +0.06 +1.16 0.32 12.57
Thailand -0.25 +1.41 0.07 -4.43
(Reporting by Jaskiran Singh in Bengaluru; Editing by Subhranshu Sahu)
Our Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.