THE PESO ended its rally against the greenback on Thursday as market participants covered for their short dollar positions.
The local unit closed Thursday’s session at P52.41 versus the greenback, six centavos weaker than its Wednesday finish of P52.35 per dollar.
The peso opened the session stronger at P52.23 a dollar, climbing to as high as P52.20 intraday. However, it declined to its worst showing of P52.43 in the afternoon session.
Dollars traded went up to $914.63 million from the $727.65 million that switched hands the previous day.
Traders interviewed yesterday said the peso weakened slightly even though it only consolidated throughout the day.
“We saw nothing extraordinary about the trade today. We’re continuing within the range, so we’re consolidating for now,” a trader said in a phone interview on Thursday, adding that market players covered their short dollar positions.
“Market players were riding on the trend that the peso is recovering,” the trader said. “But towards the end, when we saw a short squeeze or the ascent of the dollar, we saw some players try to cover their short dollar position.”
Meanwhile, another trader said the peso weakened as the dollar rebounded on risk-off sentiment brought by the “news across euro and pound.”
“I think this is more of profit taking and more of the reflection of the dollar strength,” the second trader said. It was more of the news across euro and pound, so I think it was the risk-off tone that caused the peso to go lower.”
For today, the first trader expects the peso to move between P52.20 and P52.50, while the other gave a P52.30-P52.50 range. — KANV
