Peso climbs vs dollar
THE PESO strengthened on Wednesday as the dollar’s ascent against the euro paused and as the local trade data came in stronger than expected.
The local currency closed Wednesday’s session at P54.18 versus the greenback, six centavos stronger than the P54.24-per-dollar finish on Tuesday.
The peso traded stronger the whole day, opening the session at P54.19 per greenback. Its best showing stood at P54.11, while its intraday low was at P54.22 versus the US currency.
Trading volume grew to $720.8 million from the $605 million that exchanged hands the previous day.
A foreign exchange trader said the local unit traded within a range similar to Tuesday’s.
“The peso was stronger compared to [Tuesday] since the dollar traded weaker overnight due to the Euro event wherein sterling and euro pushed the dollar lower,” the trader said in a phone interview.
The trader added that the “slightly better than expected” trade data slightly pushed the peso stronger.
The country posted a $3.513-billion trade deficit in August, wider than the $2.737-billion gap a year ago but was a tad narrower than the $3.546 billion in July, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported.
Meanwhile, ING Bank N.V.-Manila branch senior economist Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa said the recent strong rhetoric from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas “could help stem the currency’s (peso)weakness and prevent trade gap from widening further.”
“But exports will need to rebound in the coming months to truly make some headway,” Mr. Mapa added in a report.
For Thursday, the first trader expects the peso to move between P54.10 and P54.25, while the other gave a P54.10-P54.30 range. •