* Fed effort should derail dollar momentum - analyst
* South Korean won top gainer in the region, up 1%
* IDR marks best intraday gain in about two weeks
(Adds text, updates prices)
By Shriya Ramakrishnan
March 24 (Reuters) - Emerging Asian currencies rebounded on
Tuesday as dollar buyers took a pause after the U.S. Federal
Reserve pledged unlimited quantitative easing and took steps to
backstop a range of credit to cushion the economic blow from the
coronavirus outbreak.
In an unprecedented move, the Fed on Monday said it would
back purchases of corporate bonds, roll out a programme to get
credit to small and medium-sized business and expand asset
purchases to stabilise financial markets. "Currency wars are here to stay and right now, the Fed's
efforts should derail a lot of the momentum that was building
for the U.S. dollar," said Edward Moya, a senior market analyst
at OANDA.
Amid increasing uncertainty around the coronavirus and its
impact, the dollar has been a major gainer as investors have
dumped holdings in stocks, commodities and riskier bonds, while
companies have also sought to retain hard cash to fund
operations.
Leading gains in the region, the South Korean won KRW=KFTC
advanced 1% to 1,253.60 against the dollar.
Jingyi Pan, a market strategist at IG Asia, said with South
Korea being amongst the worst hit in terms of the virus case
count, a flattening infection curve helped to calm some of the
frayed nerves.
South Korea reported 76 new coronavirus cases on Tuesday,
maintaining a downward trend in new infections and raising hopes
that Asia's largest outbreak outside China may be slowing.
Aiding sentiment further, the government doubled a planned
economic rescue package to $80 billion to save companies hit by
the outbreak and put a floor under crashing stocks and bond
markets.
The Indonesian rupiah IDR=ID strengthened 0.5% to 16,475
per dollar, its best intraday performance in nearly two weeks.
Indonesia's parliamentary budget committee recommended the
government raise a cap on the state budget deficit to 5% of
gross domestic product to allow for more budget manoeuvering as
it tackles the spread of coronavirus. The rupiah, which has weakened 15.8% so far this year, has
been the worst hit in the region by excessive dollar strength.
The Philippine peso PHP= climbed 0.7%, while the Thai baht
THB=TH firmed 0.2% ahead of a central bank policy meeting on
Wednesday.
A slim majority of economists expect the Bank of Thailand to
cut its benchmark interest rate to a new low, a Reuters poll
showed, after slashing it in a surprise meeting last week to
mitigate the hit to its economy from the outbreak. The Singapore dollar SGD= and the Taiwan dollar TWD=TP
gained 0.4% each against the greenback.
Singapore is set to unveil on Thursday new relief packages
to help firms and households weather the economic impact from
the pandemic, just weeks after it announced multi-billion dollar
virus-fighting schemes in its annual budget. VS U.S. DOLLAR
Change on the day at
0619 GMT
Currency Latest bid Previous Pct
day Move
Japan yen 110.470 111.2 +0.66
Sing dlr 1.454 1.4592 +0.36
Taiwan dlr 30.290 30.405 +0.38
Korean won 1253.600 1266.5 +1.03
Baht 32.900 32.955 +0.17
Peso 50.890 51.25 +0.71
Rupiah 16475.000 16550 +0.46
Rupee 76.143 76.30 +0.21
Ringgit 4.439 4.44 +0.02
Yuan 7.089 7.0900 +0.02
Change so far in 2020
Currency Latest bid End 2019 Pct
Move
Japan yen 110.470 108.61 -1.68
Sing dlr 1.454 1.3444 -7.53
Taiwan dlr 30.290 30.106 -0.61
Korean won 1253.600 1156.40 -7.75
Baht 32.900 29.91 -9.09
Peso 50.890 50.65 -0.47
Rupiah 16475.000 13880 -15.75
Rupee 76.143 71.38 -6.25
Ringgit 4.439 4.0890 -7.88
Yuan 7.089 6.9632 -1.77