Oil importers hit hard - The.......>

EMERGING MARKETS: Oil importers hit hard

- The move in oil markets and risk sentiment today has filtered well beyond G10

early Friday, with currencies of large oil importing nations bearing the brunt

of the losses. Both the INR and KRW are underperforming broader EM, with KRW

snapping an impressive rally staged since the Phase One US-China trade deal was

secured. USD/KRW now sits just below the 50-dma resistance at 1171.33 and a

break above here would expose the mid-December downgap at 1186.90.

- HKD was one of the strongest performers across the Asia-Pac session overnight,

hitting the highest levels against the greenback since H1 2017 at 7.7770 in

overnight trading. Despite the volatility elsewhere being largely prompted by

risk-off flows on the Iran news, HKD broke higher as markets continue to eye

expectations that funding costs will rise in the coming weeks due to cash demand

ahead of Lunar New Year and anticipated Chinese IPOs on HK exchanges.

- PMI data from China, Brazil, India and elsewhere are all due next week, as

well as Chinese inflation.