NT$ falls amid speculation of intervention

The currency earlier advanced to a three-week high after reports in the U.S., the world's biggest economy, showed manufacturing shrank last month at the slowest pace since August 2008 and sales of existing homes increased for a fourth month. Taiwan's exports in June fell 31.8 percent from a year earlier, according to economists in a Bloomberg News survey before a July 7 report.

The currency's decline “could be related to the central bank buying U.S. dollars in the last 15 minutes of trade because we had seen them trying to temper the rise in the Taiwan dollar,” said Maya Pinto, an economist at IDEAglobal in Singapore.

“They're concerned about the competitiveness of their exports given that external demand remains weak.”

The Taiwan dollar fell 0.5 percent to NT$32.947 at the 4 p.m. close yesterday, the biggest slide since June 2, according to Taipei Forex Inc. It fell as much as 0.7 percent to NT$33, after earlier touching NT$32.670, the strongest since June 11.

The U.S. Institute for Supply Management's factory index, a measure of manufacturing production, rose for a sixth straight month to 44.8 in June. Readings less than 50 signal contraction.

Taiwan's 10-year government bonds were little changed.

The yield on the 1.375 percent bond maturing March 2019 held at 1.63 percent as of 1:30 p.m. in Taipei, according to Gretai Securities Market, Taiwan's biggest exchange for bonds. Its price climbed 0.013, or NT$13 per NT$100,000 face amount, to 97.7487. A basis point is 0.01 percentage point.

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