Peso climbs on data

THE PESO strengthened slightly against the dollar on Tuesday as the pair traded sideways on the back of strong data from the US and China.

The local currency ended yesterday’s session at P52.05 against the greenback, two centavos stronger than its P52.07-per-dollar finish the previous day.

The peso opened the session slightly stronger at P52.05 versus the greenback, which was also its best showing for the day. Meanwhile, it dipped to as low as P52.11, data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines showed.

Dollars traded declined to $427.3 million from the $518.1 million tallied on Monday.

A trader said in a phone interview yesterday that the trading session was “uneventful.”

“We traded within the range. Clearly, there’s no direction whether to move higher or lower,” the trader said.

Meanwhile, another trader attributed the sideways movement to the upbeat data from the US and China.

“The peso went sideways today as the US reported stronger retail sales yesterday and China posting sustained growth for the first quarter this year this morning,” the trader said in an e-mail on Tuesday.

Reuters reported that US retail sales rebounded in March after three months of decline as Americans purchased motor vehicles and other big-ticket items.

Meanwhile, China’s economy grew 6.8% in the first quarter, slightly better than expected, driven by strong consumer demand, healthy exports as well as robust property investment, also according to a Reuters report.

“[These left] markets indecisive as the two world’s largest economies seemingly came unscathed despite trade war rhetoric in the past few months,” the trader added.

For today, the second trader sees the peso moving between P51.95 and P52.15 versus the dollar, while the first trader gave a slightly narrow range of P52 and P52.15.

“The local currency is likely to strengthen amid expectations of stronger Eurozone inflation for March,” the second trader noted.

Investors will also look at US housing starts data was released overnight, the first trader said, noting that this may “not be essential.” •