Peso rallies on month-end support
By Elijah Joseph C. Tubayan, Reporter
THE peso rallied against the dollar on Friday on profit-taking typical of month-end trading, ignoring the upward revision to US gross domestic product reading.
The local currency closed at P50.815 to the dollar on Friday, 16 and a half centavos stronger than the P50.815 finish on Thursday.
The volume of the pair’s trading slid to $740.3 million from the $881.5 million recorded in the previous session.
Traders interviewed separately said that the market was still on a profit-taking stance.
“The correction to the rally continued, so we saw some downward pressure on dollar peso,” a trader said.
“We opened lower and actually peso traded heavy even into the close,” he added.
This is despite the US revising its second quarter gross domestic product to a final 3.1% from an initial 3%.
Land Bank of the Philippines market economist Guian Angelo S. Dumalagan said progress in lawmakers’ deliberation on the Philippines’ tax reform program helped.
“The peso appreciated today, despite the upward revision in second-quarter US GDP growth, due to profit taking amid some positive news about the Philippines’ tax reform,” he said in an email.
Another trader said that the market had already anticipated the revision so the dollar did not budge even as the greenback usually strengthens when key US data yield positive results.
“It’s not so different from the markets’ expectations. It is just one tick,” he said in a separate phone call.
