RTTN: Aussie Climbs On Strong Asian Equities - Westpac
(RTTNews) - Analysts at Westpac noted on Monday that the Australian dollar strengthened in the Asian session as equities rose on risk appetite following the resignation of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak on Friday.
However, strong Asian equities failed to inspire Asian currencies, Westpac noted.
AUD/USD that opened the day lower, falling to a low of 0.9981, rebounded soon and reached the 1.0040/50 level.
Similarly, EUR/USD declined towards 1.3500 early but the currency pair recovered and pushed back to the 1.3540 level.
Demand for the Japanese currency increased in the Asian session as traders in Japan returned back from a long weekend, but Westpac analysts noted the slide in USD/JPY was not correlated with regional risk appetite. USD/JPY fell from an early high of 83.57 to a mid-session low of 83.14 and the pair looks heavy ahead of the European opening.
But the New Zealand dollar underperformed today as a government report showed that the nation's retail sales declined more than expected in December. NZD/USD slipped from 0.7585 to an intra-day low of 0.7555. But the NZ currency rebounded to the 0.7580 level.
Westpac noted that the heavy sell-off in Asian equities on Friday has certainly weighed on KRW and TWD to some extent. Speculation mounts that the central banks of Korea and Taiwan may help stem the losses in the currencies in the near term.
USD/KRW has gained around 0.5% to 1226/27, while 1 month USD/TWD traded up towards the 29.30 region.
But other Asian currencies advanced against the USD, but quite modestly. USD/SGD has fallen only 0.2% to 1.2800.
