(File photo)
MANILA – Philippine peso kicked off November touching the 55-level during Friday's trading while local shares also gained.
Peso strengthened by 0.63 versus the US dollar to close the day at 56.1 from Tuesday’s finish of 56.73.
It opened the day stronger at 56.60 from previous trading’s kick off at 56.80 to the greenback.
The local currency went stronger to 55.93 against a dollar then traded to its weakest level for the day at 56.60, bringing the average level for the day to 56.25.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort said the 55.93 intraday trading recorded a new low in nearly three months since Aug. 7, 2023.
Ricafort added that the stronger peso on Friday was driven by “some seasonal increase in OFW remittances to finance some holiday-related spending, especially for the rest of this long holiday weekend for many people” and “the recent decline in global crude oil prices to among three-month lows and erased all the increase since the Israel-Hamas war started on Oct. 7, 2023 as this could help reduce the country’s oil import bill and help narrow the country’s trade deficit”.
The volume of trade surged to USD1.84 billion to close this week from Tuesday’s volume of USD860.9 million.
“For Monday, the peso exchange rate could range at the 56 to 56.20 levels,” he added.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recorded gains for the two trading days for the week.
On Friday, PSEi improved by 15.49 points. However, it still failed to lift the bourse to the 6,000 mark as it closed the day at 5,989.27 level.
All Shares also increased by 8.88 points to 3,263.05.
All sectoral indices ended in the green territory except for Financials, which declined by 8.20 points.
Advancers led decliners at 106 to 59, with 49 left unchanged. (PNA)
