Bearish rupee bets at 2-month high; long yuan positions double

By Jongwoo Cheon

SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Short positions in the Indian rupee hit the highest in two months amid sustained doubts over policymakers' ability to stabilise the currency, while bullish bets on the Chinese yuan nearly doubled, a Reuters poll showed on Thursday.

Bearish sentiment on the rupee increased to the highest since June 20, according to the survey of 15 currency analysts.

The rupee has hovered near a record low of 61.80 per dollar even after the government announced a flurry of measures over the last week to support it, such as hikes in gold import duties, while the central bank was spotted intervening.

Investors regard those measures as insufficient to lift the ailing unit, believing such steps were unlikely to narrow the current account deficit.

By contrast, long positions in the yuan more than doubled as the renminbi hit a record high, with stronger-than-expected trade and output data spurring hopes of an economic recovery.

Bearish positions in the Singapore dollar nearly halved as the currency hit a near eight-week high after data showed the economy grew faster than expected in the second quarter.

Meanwhile, investors became less bullish on the South Korean won on growing caution over possible intervention by the authorities to stem its strength.

The won rose 1.6 percent in July when most of its regional peers fell.

The Reuters survey is focused on what analysts believe are the current market positions in nine Asian emerging market currencies: 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.

A score of plus 3 indicates the market is significantly long U.S. dollars. The figures included positions held through non-deliverable forwards (NDFs).

The survey findings ASIAPOSN are provided below (positions in U.S. dollar versus each currency):

DATE CNY KRW SGD IDR TWD INR MYR PHP THB

15-Aug -0.78 -0.14 0.27 1.22 0.05 1.50 1.24 0.55 0.53

1-Aug -0.38 -0.42 0.50 1.55 0.24 0.99 1.24 0.36 0.50

18-July -0.61 -0.33 0.19 1.44 0.01 1.01 0.67 0.48 0.21

4-July -0.32 0.04 0.48 1.12 0.26 0.94 0.53 0.31 0.41

20-June -0.84 0.51 0.69 1.39 0.25 1.66 0.90 0.61 0.70

6-June -1.34 0.10 0.28 1.35 0.30 1.19 0.77 -0.17 0.69

23-May -1.92 0.51 1.08 0.65 0.40 0.68 -0.27 -0.09 0.35

(Additional reporting by Sumanta Dey in BANGALORE; Editing by Kim Coghill)