960403

Asian dollar

deposits little

changed

SINGAPORE: Asian dollar deposit rates were little changed in lacklustre trade with most traders sidelined ahead of tonight's release of the US February personal income and factory orders data, dealers said on Wednesday.

Personal income for February is forecast to show an increase of 0.8 percent compared with a 0.1 percent gain reported in January.

February factory orders are expected to show a decline of 1.0 percent against January's 0.5 percent rise.

"The market was quiet and featureless in the morning except for some light activity at the shorter end of the market", a local dealer said.

"The market is now waiting for more clues to market direction from tonight's release of the (February) personal income and factory orders figures but I don't think there will be much impact here unless the numbers are way off market expectations", he added.

"Some people are also waiting for possible direction from this Friday's employment report for March", he added.

In short dates, Wednesday/Thursday, Thursday/Friday and week-fixed were unchanged from Tuesday's common 5-3/8 5-1/4 percent.

Among term rates, one to five-month were unchanged from Tuesday's common 5-7/16 5-5/16 percent, six-month unchanged at 5-1/2 5-3/8, nine-month unchanged at 5-5/8 5-1/2 and twelve-month unchanged at 5-11/16 5-9/16 percent.-Reuter