By Chris Fournier April 14 (Bloomberg) -- Canada’s dollar appreciated to the strongest level in 22 months versus its U.S. counterpart as a rise in global stocks and commodities burnished the appeal of currencies tied to growth. The Canadian dollar strengthened past parity with the greenback for the first time this week. It has gained 5.7 percent this year for the second-best performance versus the U.S. dollar among its 16 most-traded counterparts, after Mexico’s peso. An accelerating economic recovery and speculation the Bank of Canada will raise borrowing costs before the Federal Reserve have fueled its rise. “People are adding to their long Canadian dollar positions,” said Firas Askari, head currency trader in Toronto at Bank of Montreal, Canada’s fourth-largest lender. “It’s a continued good-news Canadian dollar story.” Canada’s currency gained 0.4 percent to 99.67 Canadian cents per U.S. dollar at 8:16 a.m. in Toronto, from C$1.0011 yesterday. It touched 99.62 cents, the strongest level since June 2. One Canadian dollar buys $1.0034. The central bank meets April 20 to decide on interest rates. Governor Mark Carney has pledged to leave interest rates at a record low 0.25 percent depending on inflation. Canada gets about half its export revenue from raw materials. Six-month overnight index swap rates, a measure of the average overnight interest rate expected by investors during that time, climbed to 0.572 percent today, from 0.5525 yesterday, indicating traders are raising bets on borrowing-cost increases. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

Source