SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Investors are becoming increasingly picky about which bonds and stocks they buy in Southeast Asia’s fast-growing economies as the risk of policy bungling makes them more discerning.

The ebb and flow of cash from money managers and retail investors into Indonesia, the Philippines, Thailand and Malaysia is still on balance an inflow into these markets. The dynamics have however changed, with marked differences between countries.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The yen’s fall past 100 per dollar highlights growing concerns about ultra-loose monetary policy around the globe and raises the prospect that policymakers elsewhere may take action to protect their economies from a tide of hot money.

Fears that a global currency war is brewing were fuelled when the Reserve Bank of Australia and Bank of Korea both cut interest rates this week, citing the strength of their currencies as one of the reasons to act.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – The yen’s fall past 100 per dollar highlights growing concerns about ultra-loose monetary policy around the globe and raises the prospect that policymakers elsewhere may take action to protect their economies from a tide of hot money.

Fears that a global currency war is brewing were fuelled when the Reserve Bank of Australia and Bank of Korea both cut interest rates this week, citing the strength of their currencies as one of the reasons to act.

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose on Monday as investors gave the thumbs up to an upbeat U.S. labour force report that sent Wall Street to an all-time closing high last week, while the dollar held its ground against the yen.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan climbed nearly one percent with Australia’s main share index also about a percent higher. Malaysian shares were the biggest gainers, rising 3 percent after the ruling coalition government won a tight election.

SYDNEY/SINGAPORE, May 6 (Reuters) – Asian stocks rose on
Monday as investors gave the thumbs up to an upbeat U.S. labour
force report that sent Wall Street to an all-time closing high
last week, while the dollar held its ground against the yen.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan
climbed nearly one percent with Australia’s main
share index also about a percent higher. Malaysian
shares were the biggest gainers, rising 3 percent after
the ruling coalition government won a tight election.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Having just announced its best quarterly financial performance in five years and a second quarter of record volumes in its derivatives business, the Singapore Exchange (SGX) hopes geographic advantages will help make a success of its new menu of Asian currency futures later this year.

The exchange will be offering futures in the Indian rupee, Singapore dollar, Australian dollar and the Aussie-Japanese yen cross in the third quarter of 2013.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – CME Group is seeing record volumes in futures involving the Japanese yen, spurred by rising volatility in currency markets and the yen’s sharp swings this year, the head of the exchange’s currency and interest rate products told Reuters.

The Chicago-based futures and options exchange saw yen futures volumes jump 110 percent so far this year over the same period in 2012, while options volumes jumped 149 percent. Volumes in yen futures against the euro are up 373 percent.

SINGAPORE, April 4 (Reuters) – Unable to decide if
Pyongyang’s military threats are real or mere rhetoric, some
fund managers and other investors exposed to South Korean stocks
and bonds are buying financial protection in the form of cheap
options and credit insurance.

Financial markets have rarely reacted to North Korea’s
frequent bursts of bellicose rhetoric. This time though, the
scale of provocation from the reclusive nation and investors’
lack of familiarity with its new leader, Kim Jong-un, have made
markets slightly wary.

SINGAPORE (Reuters) – Banks in Singapore are stubbornly against adopting domestically set reference rates for derivative contracts in the Indonesia rupiah, despite preparing to drop their own rate fixing for the Malaysian ringgit and Vietnamese dong.

Traders in non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) distrust onshore prices for the rupiah, fearing that a lack of liquidity in Indonesian currency markets and the central bank’s heavy-handed intervention distorts pricing.

SINGAPORE, March 22 (Reuters) – Banks in Singapore are
stubbornly against adopting domestically set reference rates for
derivative contracts in the Indonesia rupiah, despite preparing
to drop their own rate fixing for the Malaysian ringgit and
Vietnamese dong.

Traders in non-deliverable forwards (NDFs) distrust onshore
prices for the rupiah, fearing that a lack of liquidity in
Indonesian currency markets and the central bank’s heavy-handed
intervention distorts pricing.