SHANGHAI – China’s yuan weakened to near its lowest in 8 1/2 years on Monday, weighed down by the dollar’s continuing strength as overseas investors bet the Trump administration will implement expansionary fiscal policies.

The official midpoint guided by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) was set weaker for a 12th consecutive day at 6.8985 per dollar prior to market open on Monday, compared with the previous fix 6.8796.

Khoon Goh, head of Asia research at ANZ Bank, wrote in a note last week the yuan would end the year at 6.90 and hit 7.10 by the end of 2017.

Some market watchers were concerned about whether the central bank would prop up the Chinese currency at current levels.

“Whether China will continue to defend 6.9 amid dollar strength will be the key focus of this week,” Tommy Xie, an economist at OCBC Bank in Singaporewrote in a note on Monday.

Chinese policymakers have been unfazed by the yuan’s recent slide, but are ready to slow its descent for fear of fanning capital flight if the currency falls too quickly through the psychologically important 7-per-dollar level, policy advisers said.

The yuan index surprisingly appreciated against a basket of currencies, official data showed, with the Chinese currency having lost more than one percent of its value to the dollar last week.

The latest China Foreign Exchange Trade System (CFETS) data showed that the index for the yuan’s value based on the market’s trade-weighted basket stood at 94.54 on Friday, up 0.22 percent from the previous week.

The dollar index, which tracks the greenback against a basket of six rivals, stood at 101.34 at midday, not far away from a high of 101.48 on Friday, its highest since March 2003.

“I expect the dollar index to continue to climb to breach 105, which will force the yuan involuntarily to fall further,”said a Shanghai-based trader at a foreign bank.

“The market was quite stable in the morning without much pressure from dollar purchases,” the trader said, adding that investors in the domestic market were very “cautious”.

The spot market opened at 6.8945 per dollar and was changing hands at 6.8970 at midday, 90 pips weaker than the previous late session close and 0.02 percent firmer than the midpoint.

The offshore yuan was trading 0.28 percent weaker than the onshore spot at 6.9167 per dollar.

Offshore one-year non-deliverable forwards contracts (NDFs), considered the best available proxy for forward-looking market expectations of the yuan’s value, traded at 7.1, 2.84 percent softer than the midpoint.

One-year NDFs are settled against the midpoint, not the spot rate.

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2016-11-11 15:46:21

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Things Singapore investors need to know after Trump’s win

Source:

The Straits Times

Reuters

AFP

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As the king of fruits finds an increasingly bigger following in China, durian lovers in Malaysia and Singapore find prices spiking and supplies at home dwindling, reports PAULINE D. LOH.

TO understand China, sit down and eat with them. Food is the indestructible bond that holds the social fabric together. It is also one of the last strong bonds of community and culture.

But where does the durian, a pungent South-East Asian fruit, fit in here?

For some, it is an abomination from hell, raising an intolerable stink that is an assault on the senses.

To others, it is ambrosia from heaven, nature’s gift of the perfect fruit. And now, the durian is finding an increasing following in China, land of a million gourmets.

While plantation owners in South-East Asia are delirious with delight at this growing trend, their faithful consumers in traditional markets are not so happy.

Because of the demand in China, supplies in both Singapore and its native Malaysia have fallen greatly, and prices have skyrocketed this year.

Designer varieties, like the Musang King and D24 especially, have mostly been sent to China, leaving durian lovers in Singapore and Malaysia scrabbling for what’s left.

“These are special trees that fruit in the equatorial foothills at about 1,000m above sea level.

They need cooler weather at night to set fruit after pollination by bats, and the best come from Pahang,” says Eric Chew, who shifted his Malaysian durian sales operations to Guangzhou five years ago.

His company sells mainly Malaysian Musang King durians to China and has expanded with more carefully chosen plantation sites in Laos and Vietnam to meet Chinese demands for the fruit.

The most popular products in China are vacuum-packed, flash-frozen Musang King durian, as well as Sudan King and D24 frozen durian pulp, which is suitable for hotel bakeries and professional confectioneries.

Chew’s company, Durian Royal Family, is a wholesaler that used to cater only to major clients with minimum orders in container loads.

In 2011, China lifted its restrictions on the import of Malaysian durian and demand from smaller retailers boomed.

It is for this section of the market that Chew decided to set up his base in Guangzhou, from where he directly serves clients from Shanghai, Beijing and Guangzhou.

“There are a lot of online sellers in Shanghai, so we do most of our business there. In Beijing, we cater mainly to five-star hotels.”

Guangzhou and Hong Kong are established markets, since the Cantonese have been eating and loving durian for a long time.

They believe this nutrient-rich fruit is a natural tonic with recuperative qualities.

Chew says that since 2011, the wholesale price of quality durian in China has risen from RM3 per kilogram to more than RM70. The current exchange rate is RM1 to 1.60 yuan.

The 20-fold increase is still continuing and, with supplies being imited, prices look likely to go up even more.

A quick check online shows that Chinese consumers are paying from 400 to 500 yuan for half a large durian, and about 350 on average for a 200g tub of ready-to-eat durian pulp.

Why are the Chinese prepared to pay so much for this prickly, pungent fruit?

Tastewise, you either love it or hate it. Will Ding and his wife, Zhang Ying, are typical converts.

“When we first went to Singapore, we couldn’t stand the smell and couldn’t understand why people were so enthusiastic about it,” says Ding. “Then we took a trip to Penang in Malaysia and visited a specialty stall.

“The proprietor patiently introduced us to all the varieties – buttery sweet ones, the bittersweet varieties. We were hooked from then on.”

The couple compare the experience to wine-tasting.

These days, Ding and Zhang take trips each year to seek out the best durians in season, and the names of designer varietals like Musang King, Sudan King, Red Prawn and D24 roll easily off their tongues.

The proliferation of international five-star hotels with their globalised kitchens has also done its part in introducing this exotic fruit, converting younger consumers in China with seductive durian desserts.

Many executive chefs and F&B directors are from Singapore and Malaysia, and they have made efforts to introduce their favourite fruit to their diners.

Many hotels even have special durian promotions in season.

China, it seems, has awakened to the intense pleasures of the King of Fruit and things will never be the same again.

An apparently innocent traditional item has found its way to the centre of the influence-peddling scandal surrounding President Park Geun-hye and her longtime confidante Choi Soon-sil.

Obangnang, a multicolored pouch that is a traditional symbol of good fortune, featured in Park’s inauguration ceremony in February 2013 — a giant obangnang setup at Gwanghwanun Plaza opened up to reveal a tree with dozens of mini obangnang hanging from its branches.

Almost four years later and the pouch has come into the spotlight after a file titled “obangnang” was reportedly discovered on Choi’s discarded PC tablet that was uncovered by local media outlet JTBC.

It was later reported that hanbok designer Kim Young-seok, suspected of being a close acquaintance of Choi, was in charge of planning the ceremony and the obangnang installation.

Yet many suspect it was Choi who masterminded the event.

And as she is the daughter of Choi Tae-min, a self-proclaimed pastor and a founder of an obscure religious group called the Church of Eternal Life, the obangnang has come under scrutiny for possibly being associated with the group.

Traditional craftsman are heatedly refuting such allegations against the traditional pouch, which for thousands of years was beloved as a talisman that was thought to ward off evil and bring peace.

“The obangnang dates as far back as the Three Kingdoms Period (57 BC-668 AD),” said Ha Jae-goo, director of the Ssamzisarang Boudoir Craft Academy.

The pouch’s five colors — blue, white, red, black and yellow — are meant to represent the harmony of yin and yang and the planets, he added. These are colors that frequently appear on Korean traditional costumes and decorations.

Such pouches were put to everyday use as Korean traditional attire did not come with sewn-in pockets.

The pouches were also hung on trees and doors during ceremonies to deter evil.

However, according to Ha, the obangnang featured in Park’s inauguration ceremony was inaccurate in its colour placement.

“The colors need to be placed strategically in order to represent balance,” he said.

Blue, white, red, black and yellow are each to be placed in the east, west, south, north and centre, respectively.

In fact, Ha feels that the misplacement of the colors may have brought about Park’s current problems.

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2016-10-29 18:47:34

Photo Gallery

The ‘female Rasputin’ at centre of S Korean President Park Geun-Hye political scandal

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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Proponents of Korea’s traditional shamanism also oppose its association with Choi Soon-sil.

“Korean shamanism is about believing in the supernatural, and that certain people have the capability to communicate with the supernatural,” said Yang Jong-seung, director of the Shamanism Museum in Eunpyeong-gu, Seoul.

Though its origins are unclear, shamanism has been entrenched in Korean society since ancient times, he said.

Korea’s branch of shamanism largely believes in hereditary and spiritual shamans — those whose abilities are passed down generation to generation and those who obtain the powers through a spiritual encounter, manifested through a severe illness or other phenomenon.

The religion founded by Choi Tae-min, however, combines the “enlightenment of Buddhism, spiritual descent of Christianity, and Cheondoism’s belief that man and the heavens are one,” according to an advertisement for his church dating back to 1973.

The senior Choi is said to have claimed he was a messenger of god who could communicate with Park’s deceased mother.

Choi Soon-sil has been linked to shamanism with reports alleging that she frequently sought shaman services and that she herself is a shaman.

To this, Lee Won-bok, head of the Korean Federation of Shamanism, said it is a shame that “the tradition and history of Korean shamanism is being dragged through the dirt when strictly, it is not related to the scandal.”

He also argued that Choi shows no signs of being a shaman.

The federation is planning to release a statement calling for media to refrain from labeling Choi a shaman.

SEOUL – The impeachment of South Korea’s embattled President Park Geun Hye in a snowballing corruption case inched closer on Monday (Nov 21) when the main opposition party said it was examining its options.

The move comes the day after prosecutors named Ms Park a criminal suspect in a major influence-peddling case, tightening the noose on an already hugely unpopular leader.

“We will immediately review the timing and methods of impeachment and set up a subcommittee to review a push for impeachment,” said Ms Choo Mi Ae, head of the opposition liberal Democratic Party.

Two smaller opposition parties have already said they will seek to remove her.

Lawmakers have been under growing public pressure to oust Ms Park, with weekly mass protests drawing hundreds of thousands of protesters across the country.

But with impeachment proceedings likely to drag on for months, the Democratic Party has been reluctant to move because of fears of a backlash from conservative voters.

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2016-11-06 10:08:13

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Tens of thousands of South Koreans stage protest in Seoul calling for President Park Geun Hye to resign

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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On Sunday, Seoul prosecutors said Ms Park had colluded with her long-time friend, Choi Soon Sil, who is accused of coercing local firms into donating more than US$60 million (S$85.6 million) and of meddling in state affairs.

Ms Park’s single, five-year term ends in February 2018, and observers say she is likely to do all she can to serve out her time because a sitting president cannot be charged with a criminal offence except insurrection or treason.

The three opposition parties hold a combined 55 per cent of parliamentary seats – short of the two-thirds majority required to pass an impeachment Bill.

But dozens of lawmakers in Ms Park’s own party vowed on Sunday to support a push for her impeachment, wary of growing public anger about the scandal.

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2016-10-29 18:47:34

Photo Gallery

The ‘female Rasputin’ at centre of S Korean President Park Geun-Hye political scandal

Source:

AFP

Reuters

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