Peso at P53.515:$1, stock index down

June 28, 2018

The Philippine peso neared a 12-year-low against the US dollar as it closed at P53.515 on Thursday from P53.475 on the previous day.

The currency opened at P53.50 against the dollar and hit a low of P53.545, which is short from the July 2o06 rate of P53.55. The peso rallied to P53.49 before closing lower. Volume went down to $621.49 million from Wednesday's $918.70 million.

Last week, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas raised interest rates for the second straight month as it hiked the reverse repurchase rate by .25 percentage points.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index closed 109.86 points to 7,066.57. In the broader market, there were 114 decliners, 54 gainers and 51 shares unchanged.

Volume reached 623.6 million valued at P5.79 billion from Wednesday's 675.5 million valued at P6.5 billion. Foreigners were net sellers, unloading P3.23 billion compared to purchases of P2.8 billion.

Most active issues were led by Jollibee, down 4.21 percent to P259.60; SM Prime, down 3.52 percent to p34.20 and Aboitiz Equity Ventures, down 2.7 percent to P54. DMS