Regional currencies hold steady

Regional currencies hold steady

SINGAPORE (Dow Jones): Southeast Asian currencies scarcely
budged during Asian trading hours on Friday, and most analysts
and traders expect little to change over the coming week,
predicting that regional markets will remain largely static.

Although a brief flurry of pre-weekend position-covering
pushed the Singapore dollar marginally lower in afternoon
trading, transaction volumes were derisory, according to dealers.

In other Southeast Asian markets the Thai baht, and the
Philippine peso also eased back slightly as market players booked
their profits by closing out long positions in the local
currencies.

Most observers dismissed the falls as insignificant, however,
forecasting that regional currencies will remain relatively
strong against the U.S. dollar in the near term.

Ever the exception to the prevailing regional trend, the
Indonesian rupiah confounded the market's expectations by ending
the Asian day a touch higher against the U.S. dollar. But whereas
few market participants can muster much optimism for the rupiah,
most are qualified bulls towards Southeast Asia's other
currencies.

Although most analysts are cautiously positive on regional
currencies on a short- to medium-term view, many say that the
markets' current stability is likely to prove a temporary
phenomenon, warning that the long-term outlook for Asia's
currencies is still bearish.

Most resilient of the Southeast Asian currencies to any
renewed sell-off will be the Thai baht, say analysts, applauding
the Bangkok government's progress towards economic and financial
restructuring.

Late in Asian dealing on Friday, the U.S. currency was trading
at 36.51 baht, up a fraction from 36.40 baht towards the end of
trading on Thursday.

The Singapore dollar also fell back a touch on Friday, as
market rumors that the Monetary Authority of Singapore was buying
U.S. dollars spooked traders into hastily covering their short
positions in the U.S. currency.

Late in Asian trading the U.S. dollar was being quoted at
S$1.6286, up slightly from S$1.6239 at the same time the previous
day.

Position-covering also dragged the Philippine peso lower on
Friday.

At the close of trading on the Philippine Dealing System, the
U.S. dollar was quoted at 39.96 pesos, up from 39.77 pesos at the
previous day's close although off Friday's intraday high of 40.19
pesos.

Late in Asia on Friday, the U.S. currency was quoted at Rp
8,374, down from Rp 8,762 late the day before.

While most Southeast Asian currencies slipped on Friday, North
Asian currencies rose, with both the new Taiwan dollar and the
South Korean won boosted by flows of foreign funds into the local
equity markets, and, in the case of the Taiwanese currency,
central bank intervention.

At the close of trading in Taipei, the U.S. dollar was quoted
at NT$32.507, down from NT$32.566 at the end of trading on
Thursday.

In Seoul, the U.S. currency closed at 1,312 won, down from
1,316 won the previous day.

In Tokyo, the dollar rose against the yen on Friday after U.S.
Federal Reserve chairman Alan Greenspan hinted that financial
markets were beginning to stabilize, dealers said.

In late trading, the dollar was trading at 117.99-118.02 yen,
up from 117.87-88 yen six hours earlier in Tokyo and 117.75 yen
in New York late Thursday.

The dollar traded at 1.6620-23 marks, compared with 1.6572