Yen, South Korean Won, Taiwan Dollar: Asia Currency Preview

By Anoop Agrawal

July 1 (Bloomberg) -- The following events and economic reports may influence trading in Asian currencies today.

Exchange rates are from the previous session.

Japanese yen: The Bank of Japan will release at 8:50 a.m. its quarterly Tankan survey of business sentiment.

The Labor Ministry will release at 10:30 a.m. a report on monthly wages, including overtime and bonuses.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura will talk to reporters after a cabinet meeting in the morning and at 4 p.m. Finance Minister Fukushiro Nukaga and Economic and Fiscal Policy Minister Hiroko Ota will hold conferences after the meeting.

The yen was at 105.19 a dollar at 5:30 p.m. in Tokyo yesterday.

South Korea's won: Imports increased 34.1 percent in June from a year ago while exports rose 20.2 percent, according to the median estimate in a Bloomberg News survey before today's report.

The won was at 1,046.

Taiwan dollar: Taiwan started exchange operations for the Chinese yuan for the first time since Taiwan and China split in 1949. Fourteen banks with a total of 1,240 branches can exchange yuan into the Taiwanese dollar, Taiwan's Central Bank said in a statement. The banks can also exchange the local currency into yuan if needed, the statement said.

The Taiwan dollar was at NT$30.354.

Hong Kong dollar: Joseph Yam, chief executive of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, said altering the currency's peg to the dollar was not the answer to fighting inflation.

The Hong Kong dollar was at HK$7.7991.

Indian rupee: Reserve Bank of India and the Bank of Japan signed an agreement that enables them to swap their currencies in amounts up to $3 billion. The agreement was approved by India's Cabinet in March.

The rupee was at 42.9663.

Indonesia rupiah: The central bank may raise its benchmark interest rate for a third straight month to slow inflation. Bank Indonesia will increase the rate to 8.75 percent from 8.5 percent, according to 14 of 18 economists in a Bloomberg survey. The board of governors will meet next on July 3 in Jakarta.

The rupiah was at 9225.

To contact the reporters on this story: Anoop Agrawal in Mumbai at Aagrawal8@bloomberg.net.