Most SE Asian currencies gain footing

Most SE Asian currencies gain footing

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): All Southeast Asian currencies, except
Indonesia's flagging rupiah, managed to climb higher against the
U.S. dollar despite a gradually weakening yen in Asian trading on
Wednesday.

The Philippine peso pushed as high as 39.293 pesos to the
dollar in intraday trading before falling back late in the day.

In late trading, the U.S. dollar traded at 39.390 pesos, still
well down from 39.71 pesos late Tuesday.

News and market sentiment has been good for the Philippines
this week. The Philippine Central Bank expects to tap a US$280
million loan from the International Monetary Fund (IMF) within
hours.

For the moment, the rupiah was trending downward as it
continues to fall from a late-October high of Rp 7,050 against
the U.S. dollar. In late Asian trade, the U.S. dollar traded at
Rp 8,575, up from Tuesday's close at Rp 8,400.

The U.S. dollar was extremely quiet against the Singapore
dollar, traders said. "Nothing to report; we've all moved over to
trade the U.S. dollar-yen," said the head of trading at a
Japanese bank. The U.S. dollar was trading at $1.6224, almost
unchanged from S$1.6220 Tuesday, giving some hint of the
currency's sideways movement in intraday trading.

"The (U.S.) dollar-Sing has seen a bit of buying by the local
banks, probably on behalf of the Monetary Authority of Singapore,
but they've been doing that for weeks," said a trader at a German
bank, adding that the expected range for the U.S. dollar will
continue to be S$1.6180 to S$1.6250.

The U.S. dollar was trading at 36.5200 baht, down from 36.66
baht Tuesday. The argument for the baht's continued strength
revolves around account surpluses and inflows of foreign capital
to buy Thai assets and invest in the local equity market.

Although persistent fears have kept traders worried that the
central bank might make an appearance to prop up the U.S. dollar
to give exporters a helping hand, central bank officials have
recently voiced their enthusiasm for a stronger baht, to help the
country to pay its hefty foreign debts, which stand at almost $60
billion.

"There have been no signs of the central bank yet," said a
trader at a French bank. "The (U.S.) dollar-baht spot has been
drifting lower. There is probably some stop-loss orders around
36.50 baht, but nothing substantial, nothing to take the dollar
lower in a big way."

In North Asia, the U.S. dollar traded at 32.468 New Taiwan
dollars (NT), almost unchanged from NT$32.454 Tuesday. The U.S.
dollar traded at 1,311.8 won, down from 1,314.50 won.

In Tokyo, the dollar rose against the yen in late trading in
Tokyo Wednesday on short-covering and better-than-expected gains
by the Democrats in U.S. mid-term elections, dealers said.

At 5 p.m., the dollar was trading at 116.63-66 yen, up from a
mid-morning level of 115.15 yen and 115.25 yen in New York late
Tuesday.