Peso climbs on continued inflows
THE PESO strengthened against the dollar on Monday as inflows continued to support the currency.
The local unit ended yesterday’s session at P52.035 versus the greenback, 8.5 centavos stronger than Wednesday’s finish of P52.16, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines (BAP) website showed.
The peso opened stronger at P52.13 against the US currency. Its intraday low stood at P52.18, while its best showing was at P52 per dollar.
Dollars traded slid to $ 507 million from the $878.5 million logged last Wednesday, the data showed.
A trader said continued inflows supported the peso.
“There is still a continuation of inflows supporting the peso. Our guess is that maybe it has something to do with the rights offer of Metrobank ( Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.),” the trader said in a phone interview yesterday, adding that they saw some banks selling the peso aggressively.
Metrobank is conducting a P60- billion rights offering to raise 799.8 million shares priced at P75 apiece until April 4. The capital raising exercise will fund the bank’s loan growth as well as the acquisition of its credit card arm.
Meanwhile, the trader also noted that the tariff imposition of China on American products did not affect yesterday’s trading, although this may create a risk-off situation.
For today, two traders see the peso moving between P51.90 and P52.50 against the dollar.
Meanwhile, the BAP has assigned Bloomberg as the new calculation agent for the dollar-peso spot reference rate effective last April 1.
In a statement sent to reporters yesterday, BAP said Bloomberg will calculate the USD/PHP spot reference rate “based on trades carried out by BAP member banks.”
Prior to the partnership between BAP and Bloomberg, the Philippine Dealing & Exchange Corp. published the foreign exchange spot summary.
“We are pleased to partner with Bloomberg to provide enhanced solutions to the FX community in the Philippines,” BAP managing director Benjamin P. Castillo was quoted as saying in the statement. •