Yen, Singapore Dollar, Malaysian Ringgit: Asia Currency Preview

By Bob Chen

Aug. 18 (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 starts a two-day monetary policy meeting today, where it will keep interest rates on hold at 0.5 percent, according to a Bloomberg News survey.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Nobutaka Machimura will hold briefings at 11 a.m. and 4 p.m. in Tokyo. Vice Finance Minister Kazuyuki Sugimoto is scheduled to meet the press at 5 p.m.

The yen was at 110.48 a dollar at 8:01 a.m. in Sydney.

Singapore dollar: Non-oil domestic exports in July dropped 5 percent, compared with a 10.5 percent slide in June, economists said in a Bloomberg News survey. The government will report the data at 1 p.m. local time.

The Singapore dollar traded at S$1.4167.

Malaysian ringgit: The statistics department will report manufacturing sales for June at 12:01 p.m. in Kuala Lumpur. Sales rose 14.8 percent in May from a year earlier.

The ringgit traded at 3.3480.

Indian rupee: Wholesale prices jumped 12.44 percent in the week to Aug. 2 from a year earlier, the biggest increase since June 1992, a government report showed Aug. 14 after trading hours. Markets were closed on Aug. 15 for a public holiday.

The rupee was at 43.055 on Aug. 14.

To contact the reporter on this story: Bob Chen in Hong Kong at bchen45@bloomberg.net.