Philippine c.bank's end-March forex swaps up at $1.85 bln

MANILA, April 30 - The Philippine central bank's holdings of foreign currency forward swaps rose nearly 11 percent in March from the previous month as it loaded up on foreign exchange with ample dollar supply in the market, official documents showed.

The central bank's total holdings of foreign currencies through forwards and futures reached $1.85 billion at the end of March against $1.67 billion in February, central bank data showed on Thursday.

The entire amount was in forwards with up to one month maturity.

A series of corporate domestic bond issues last month, the biggest of which was San Miguel Brewery's <SMB.PS> $800 million peso-debt offer, shored up dollar liquidity in the market as foreign investors sold their dollars to buy some of these high-yielding instruments, the central bank said.

The central bank's currency swaps serve as a foreign exchange buffer for the monetary authority, as these represent additional foreign reserves the central bank would hold when the swap contracts are unwound.

The country's foreign reserves climbed at a revised $39.04 billion at end-March, boosted partly by proceeds of $1.5 billion from a global bond offer early this year.

(To view the central bank data, click on http://www.bsp.gov.ph/statistics/sdds/res_mar2009.htm)