Thai baht gains ahead of PM vote, other Asian currencies drift lower

The Thai baht was the only Asian emerging market currency to make gains on Wednesday (19 July), with investors hopeful that a premiership vote could help the country move out of the tense political situation.

The baht <THB=> was up 0.1% after hitting a two-month high on Tuesday. Local shares also climbed 0.1%.

Pita Limjaroenrat, the leader of Thailand's election-winning Move Forward Party was braced for what could be his final shot at becoming prime minister, as a parliament that denied him last week convenes for its second vote.

Maybank analysts noted that if Pita were to lose the vote, he has said he will allow coalition partner and political heavyweight Pheu Thai to field its prime ministerial candidate in the next round.

Against a basket of currencies, the U.S. dollar rebounded from a 15-month low hit in the previous session, with its index <=USD> steadying at 99.943 in early Asia trade.

The South Korean won <KRW=KFTC> was among the currencies losing the most ground against the greenback, falling 0.6% on cautious trading ahead of the US Federal Reserve's policy meeting next week. The local share benchmark fell 0.3%.

"Asian markets are likely to range trade today, caught between China's tepid growth story and US' upbeat earnings results," OCBC analysts said in a note.

The yuan in China <CNY=CFXS> also dropped to be down 0.3% after data showed the country's fiscal revenues grew at a slower pace in the first six months from a year earlier compared with the January-May growth rate. Mainland China shares <.SSEC> retreated 0.3%.

The Philippines peso <PHP=> and the Singapore dollar <SGD=> were down 0.4% and 0.2% respectively.

Indonesia and Malaysia's stock markets were closed as the countries celebrate the Islamic New Year.