THE PESO recovered against the dollar on Thursday as the market consolidated due to a lack of fresh leads.
The local unit closed yesterday’s session at P50.97 versus the greenback, up 16 centavos from its P51.13 finish on Wednesday.
The peso opened the session at P51.085 per dollar. It slipped to as low as P51.10, while its intraday high stood at P50.94.
Trading volume climbed to $1.22 billion from the $1.208 billion that changed hands the previous day.
A trader said yesterday the peso resumed its strengthening trend against the dollar following its slump on Wednesday.
“The slump was due to the bounce in the dollar, so the market caught short. There was panic that’s why it went really (low),” the trader said in a phone interview.
“(On Thursday,) we saw a continuation of the (peso’s strengthening) trend given that there are no key drivers for the dollar for the rest of the week,” the trader added.
Another trader said the peso consolidated against the dollar as market players await clues as to where the pair is headed.
“The market is kind of iffy at this point if (the peso) will continue to recover given the optimism a few days ago and then the peso got short squeezed (on Wednesday),” the trader said. “Let’s see what the next move will be as we await for clues as to where the next direction will be.”
A third trader attributed the peso’s strengthening to the release of weaker US housing data, reinforcing bets of a policy rate cut from the US Federal Reserve.
For today, the first trader expects the peso to move between P50.90 and P51.10, while the second trader gave a P50.90-P51.20 range. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal
