Friday, 20 March 2015 12:24
TOKYO: The euro ticked higher Friday after Greece promised to provide its creditors with a new list of reforms to secure crucial bailout cash and avoid an exit from the eurozone.
The single currency bought $ 1.0685 and 128.98 yen in Tokyo afternoon trade, against $ 1.0660 and 128.77 yen in New York as Greek Prime Minister Alexis Tsipras said the country’s bailout was “back on track”.
The dollar also eased to 120.71 yen from 120.80 yen in US trade but was well up from the 119.57 yen it hit Wednesday soon after the Federal Reserve sounded a less hawkish tone on US interest rates.
Investors welcomed news that Tsipras had agreed to hand over a fresh package of reforms to its paymasters as his anti-austerity government tries to overhaul the terms of its bailout.
The left-wing leader made his announcement after emergency talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and the European Union’s top officials on the sidelines of a European summit in Brussels.
He said Greece faced a “humanitarian crisis” if its creditors do not unlock the remaining funds in its EU-IMF bailout, with Athens at risk of running out of money by the end of the week.
European alarm and frustration mounted after the Greek parliament adopted a crisis bill on Wednesday aimed at helping the poor.
While the crisis is not yet over, the news offered some relief to markets as an ongoing standoff over Athens’ bailout has raised fears it will crash out of the eurozone.
The dollar was holding its own after recovering from Wednesday’s plunge.
Despite the Fed opening the door to a rate hike, the US currency went into free fall after the bank’s dovish outlook cooled expectations of a move in early summer.
“While the speed and scale of the initial US dollar sell-off was testament to extremely stretched long dollar positioning among the speculative community, the scale of the subsequent retracement tells us that many professional end users of foreign exchange – corporate and intuitional investors – were not,” National Australia Bank (NAB) said in a commentary.
“Hence their evident enthusiasm for grabbing the opportunity to buy dollars at much better levels.”
The dollar mostly rose against other Asia-Pacific currencies.
It strengthened to 44.84 Philippine pesos from 44.70 pesos on Thursday, to Sg$ 1.3878 from Sg$ 1.3812, to Tw$ 31.45 from Tw$ 31.43, and to 1,122.50 South Korean won from 1,117.67 won.
The greenback also rose to 13,115.00 Indonesian rupiah from 13,037.50 rupiah and to 62.53 Indian rupees from 62.43 rupees, but it weakened to 32.68 Thai baht from 32.73 baht.
The Australian dollar fell to 76.82 US cents from 77.31 cents, while the Chinese yuan was quoted at 19.51 yen against 19.45 yen.
Copyright AFP (Agence France-Presse), 2015
