Canada’s dollar strengthened versus its U.S. counterpart on increased appetite for higher-yielding assets and month-end portfolio rebalancing by asset managers. The currency, known as the loonie for the aquatic bird on the one-dollar coin, performed best today among its 16 most- traded counterparts as global equities, copper and gold rose. The nation gets about half its export revenue from raw materials. “We’re seeing a lot of global flows and portfolio managers and investors would rather hold Canadian dollars than a lot of other currencies at the moment,” Blake Jespersen, director of foreign exchange at Bank of Montreal, said by phone from Toronto. “The Canadian dollar is going to continue to outperform.” The currency strengthened as much as 0.4 percent to C$1.0309 per U.S. dollar at 8:14 a.m. in Toronto, compared with C$1.0354 yesterday, when it reached C$1.0256, the highest level in more than a month. One Canadian dollar buys 97.00 U.S. cents. The MSCI World Index of equities in 24 developed markets advanced 0.3 percent. Copper rose to an 11-week high at $7,196.25 a metric ton. Gold for immediate delivery added 0.2 percent. To contact the reporter on this story: Chris Fournier in Montreal at cfournier3@bloomberg.net

Source