Emerging markets: Thai baht starts 2022 on firmer note and is at two-weeks high as most Asian FX slip on Tuesday (Jan 4)

BANGKOK, Jan 4 (Reuters): Most Asian currencies weakened on Tuesday, with the Philippine peso and the Indian rupee leading losses, as the US dollar firmed to a near one-week high on bets of an early rate hike by the Federal Reserve, while the Thai baht appreciated modestly.

Regional stocks were mostly higher, with equities in Singapore and Thailand advancing 1.5% and 1%, respectively, and shares in India and Indonesia logging moderate gains, buoyed by an upbeat overnight Wall Street session.

In the Philippines, trading in the equity markets was cancelled due to technical issues.

Among currencies, the Thai baht firmed 0.3% to 33.29 per dollar, their highest since late-November, to notch its fourth straight session of gains. The Thai currency's strong start to 2022 comes after it suffered its worst decline in two decades.

It depreciated 11% last year as the pandemic hammered Thailand's key tourism sector.

Poon Panichpibool, markets strategist at Krung Thai Bank said the ongoing impact of the Omicron variant and likely tightening by the Fed could prevent any sharp appreciation by the baht, likely holding between 32.75 and 33.50 per dollar during the first half of the year.

"For the second half, an improving economic recovery in Thailand and elsewhere should support more fund flows into emerging markets and Thailand. Coupled with a low current account deficit and recovery in tourism, the baht could reach between 31.75 and 32.00 by the end of this year," he added.

Elsewhere, prospects of an early Fed interest rate hike despite surging Covid-19 cases put Asian currencies on the backfoot, as the US dollar held close to its one-week high of 96.328 reached on Monday..

The Philippine peso depreciated 0.5% to hit a more than three-month low, while the Indonesian rupiah, the Malaysian ringgit and the Indian rupee each weakened about 0.4%.

Analysts at Maybank cited "a confluence of drivers", including restrictions in the Philippine capital region, heightened focus on a hawkish Fed and a seasonal pullback in remittance flows in January, as the reason for weakness in peso.

Elsewhere in Asia, China's yuan slipped 0.3% to 6.3754 per dollar on its first trading day of the year, while Japan's yen weakened 0.4% to hit its lowest level since early 2017 in its fifth straight session of losses.

Meanwhile, India's Nifty 50 continued its bull run despite a surge in Covid-19 cases, advancing 0.6% on Tuesday to scale an over six-week high on the back of energy and banking stocks. - Reuters