The Philippine peso eased on Thursday while the Thai baht moved little, with most Asian regional currency markets shut for the Lunar New Year holidays.
Financial markets in Hong Kong, South Korea, Singapore, Indonesia, Malaysia and Taiwan were closed on Thursday.
Markets will reopen in Indonesia on Friday. Singapore, South Korea, Hong Kong and Malaysia will reopen on Monday and Taiwan will resume trade on Tuesday.
The peso fell by about a quarter percent to 55.68 per dollar, from Wednesday's local close of 55.56.
Dealers in Manila said the peso fell as local companies bought US dollars in the absence of any significant inflows of that currency.
The baht was glued to a tight range of 39.0 to 39.05 per dollar, as only a few dealing rooms were active in Bangkok.
"There were no offshore names and even our local customers were out of the market because of the holiday," said a dealer at a local bank in Bangkok.
The dealer said the baht might stick to a narrow range around the 39 per dollar level on Friday as well, but some action was likely next week.
"There is interest, both local and offshore, to push the baht higher," the dealer said.
"But players will be careful as they have already seen the central bank in the market this week," he said, adding that the Bank of Thailand had helped pull the baht to 39.08 on Tuesday.
Intervention was also suspected in the Philippines where dealers said the Philippines central bank had bought pesos to pull the troubled currency off two-month lows it had hit on Tuesday.
The peso, Asia's worst performer in 2003, is expected to suffer more losses ahead of presidential elections in May.
A three-month election campaign in the Philippines will formally start on February 8.
Many analysts fear that electioneering could weaken the budget and prompt foreign lenders to ask for much higher interest rates on loans to the country, Asia's most active borrower of dollars outside of Japan.
But for the next few weeks, dealers said, the US dollar's global decline might help put a floor under the peso.
The peso touched an all-time low of 55.85 per dollar in November last year, and many dealers expect that level to be tested again as the import season in the second quarter kicks in.
In contrast, traders are bullish on the baht, which strengthened by about nine percent against the dollar in 2003.
Many analysts expect the baht to strengthen towards 38 per dollar and beyond in 2004, despite several capital controls imposed by Thailand last year to curb the currency's rise.
They expect authorities in Thailand, one of Asia's fastest growing economies, to lower their resistance to currency gains.
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