Peso Ends Monday Sideways Vs. USD

The Philippine peso closed Monday sideways to the greenback on combination of weak economic data from China and foreign selling in the local bourse.

It finished the day at PhP47.69, little changed from the PhP47.65 Friday last week.

A trader said further slowdown of the Chinese economy, based on the drop in manufacturing report last January to PhP49.4 from the December 2015’s PhP49.7 made investors risk-aversed.

This was, however, countered by some investors’ decision to cash in on the local unit after last week’s cut in Bank of Japan’s (BoJ) benchmark rate to -0.1 percent, aimed to to lift inflation and encourage investments.

“Some investors expect higher inflows to the Philippines with this latest rate cut and this helped the peso to remain firm,” the trader said.

These factors played the most part on Monday’s trading after the local currency opened at PhP47.72.

It surged to PhP47.62 but also moved to PhP47.74 bringing the day’s average to PhP47.68.

Volume of trade reached US$ 509.2 million, a little lower than the previous session’s US$ 520.1 million.

For Tuesday, the currency pair is seen to trade between PhP47.60 and PhP47.80. (PNA) LGI/JSV/SSC