Most Asian currencies rise against U.S. dollar

Most Asian currencies rise against U.S. dollar

SINGAPORE (AFP): Most Asian currencies ended slightly higher against the U.S. dollar on Thursday, rising in tandem with the yen, as a further drop in the Singapore dollar was averted by revised economic growth figures for 1998, dealers said.

The Singapore dollar fell to a low in morning trade of 1.7303 against the U.S. dollar on buying of the greenback by Hong Kong- based investment houses. It rose slightly to end at 1.7272. But this was still lower from its close the day before of 1.7262.

"What is interesting is that the economic figure for 1998 was revised and this gave impetus to the market to push the Singapore dollar higher after hitting 1.73-levels," said a dealer with a European bank here.

The Ministry of Trade and Industry revised the 1998 gross domestic product growth to 1.5 percent from a projected 1.3 percent, although it maintained that the island economy will grow very little or even contract in 1999.

Other regional units were affected earlier in trade by a slight dip in the Japanese yen but they came off their lows against the dollar, the dealer said.

The yen opened around 121-levels to the dollar and rose further to end at 120.40 amid profit-taking on the dollar. It was up from its close of 121.55 here the day before and 121.48 in New York overnight.

The Indonesian rupiah fell slightly to 8,815 from 8,788 on Wednesday.

Other Asian currencies rising barely from the previous day's closes were the Thai baht at 37.525 to the U.S. dollar from 37.55, the Philippine peso at 39.055 from 39.10, and the South Korean won at 1,224 from 1,268.

The Taiwan dollar was also higher at 33.063 from 33.083 on the back of a stronger yen and foreign remittance inflows for investment in the local stock market, dealers in Taipei said.