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.