TAIPEI -- The South Korean won led Asian currencies lower on Wednesday as investors shied away from risky assets due to worries over global corporate earnings, with the market awaiting Thailand's rate decision later in the day.
The won weakened to 1349.50 to the US dollar by 0529 GMT, down 2.0 percent from the previous domestic close of 1,322.5.
The Malaysian ringgit and the Indian rupee were down 1.0 percent at 3.6290 and 50.535 per dollar respectively.
"Deteriorating risk appetite is clearly hurting Asian forex," said Sean Callow, currency strategist at Westpac Banking Corp.
The gloomy outlook on companies' results as the earnings season kicked in triggered concerns that the global economy was still not out of the woods, which sparked a sell-off in Asian currencies and stocks on Wednesday.
Earnings for the US S&P 500 companies might tumble 37 percent in the first quarter, the seventh straight quarter of falls, according to Thomson Reuters analysts' estimates, a sign that global demand was still weak and boding ill for Asia's export-led economies.
Asian central banks have been slashing interest rates over the past few months to support their economies during the worst global downturn since the Great Depression, though several have paused over the past month.
The Bank of Thailand is set to lower its one-day repurchase rate by 25 basis points to 1.25 percent on Wednesday, its fourth cut in a row, to soften the impact on what seems certain to be the country's first recession in 11 years.
The Thai baht weakened 0.5 percent to 35.57 to the US dollar ahead of the rate announcement, with some dealers saying Wednesday's move may be the central bank's last.
"It looks to me it may be the last cut as the easing of monetary policy in some G10 economies has come to an end," a dealer said.
Some Asian economies, such as Taiwan, have already put rates on hold and are instead pushing their currencies lower as exports continue to reel from the global recession.
The Taiwan dollar lost 0.9 percent to trade at 33.865 as the central bank bought US dollars actively to help weaken the currency after the island said its exports in March fell by a third, logging a seventh straight month of declines.
"We continue to believe that with rates floored and fiscal spending yet to kick in, policymakers may be more willing to tolerate a softer Taiwan dollar to support growth," Barclays said in a report.
Domestic politics also weighed on currencies in some markets.
In Malaysia, new Prime Minister Najib Razak suffered an early blow when the opposition scored a big win in a tense by-election on Tuesday that was seen as a referendum to his premiership.
That and the possibility of a weakening in the Singapore dollar when the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) announces a policy review next week, weighed on the ringgit.
Indonesia, southeast Asia's biggest economy, is set to hold parliamentary elections on Thursday that will determine the progress of much-needed key economic reforms.
The rupiah was down 0.7 percent at 11,375 per dollar.
