POLL — Bulls remain confident on South Korean won despite chip sell — off

Long positions on S. Korean won highest since mid-September Analysts see room for further won appreciation Bearish sentiment lessens slightly on Indonesian rupiah, Thai baht By Shivangi Lahiri Oct 15 (Reuters) — Bullish bets on the South Korean won edged higher, supported by corporate dollar-selling and optimism over AI-driven chip demand despite recent capital outflows, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday. Long positions on the won have held firm since early August, while bearish bets on the Taiwan dollar and Indian rupee rose, the fortnightly survey of 10 respondents showed.

All the poll responses were received before hotter-than-expected US September inflation data released on Wednesday pushed the US dollar higher and raised the bets for Federal Reserve rate hikes over the course of the year. "(Korea's) structural semiconductor export surplus story hasn't changed," said Inki Cho, senior financial market strategist at online trading platform Exness. 20 per US dollar earlier this week, supported by a weak dollar, easing oil prices, and dollar selling by companies that outweighed foreign equity outflows. 40 per US dollar as of 0725 GMT on Thursday.

Meanwhile, short positions on the Indian rupee rose to their highest since early June. Easing the pressure on the rupee would require a shift in India's underlying flows, MUFG analysts wrote, adding that a turn in global oil prices may not be enough on its own. Bearish view on the Taiwan dollar edged higher to the highest since early August as foreign selling of Taiwanese stocks and dividend-related outflows keep the currency under pressure. However, OCBC's Wong added that dividend-related pressures should be temporary, while Taiwan's sizeable current-account surplus and central bank smoothing operations should help limit excessive depreciation in the unit.

Elsewhere, investors slightly pared back their bearish bets on the Indonesian rupiah, Philippine peso and the Thai baht eased, while short positions on the Malaysian ringgit rose to their highest since late June. Investors remain cautious over Malaysia's politics after a string of regional election setbacks for Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, with tensions in his multi-party ruling coalition fuelling expectations of an early general election. On the other hand, bullish bets on the Chinese yuan rose to their highest since early June, while those on the Singapore dollar ticked lower.

The Asian currency positioning poll is focused on what analysts and fund managers believe are the current market positions in nine Asian emerging market currencies: the Chinese yuan, South Korean won, Singapore dollar, Indonesian rupiah, Taiwan dollar, Indian rupee, Philippine peso, Malaysian ringgit and the Thai baht. The poll uses estimates of net long or short positions on a scale of minus 3 to plus 3. S. dollars.

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