Peso up, stocks down as inflation for February rose

March 7, 2017

The peso gained while stocks closed lower as February inflation numbers jumped to a three-year high on Tuesday.

The peso closed at P50.27 from Monday’s P50.395 against the US dollar as volume rose at the Philippine Dealing System. Turnover was $481.50 million from the previous session’s $352.2 million.

February inflation was reported at 3.3 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority said.

Although the figure is within the government’s range of 2 to 4 percent, Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia said in a statement “ risks to the inflation outlook appear to be tilted to the upside. This could drive inflation towards the higher end of the target.”

Pernia added “risks to inflation that we see on the external side include increase in the price of oil and the depreciation of peso.”

Stocks closed lower, with the Philippine Stock Exchange index ending 19.35 points lower to 7,294.52 points.

Volume amounted to 1.77 billion shares worth P8.38 billion from Monday’s 1.7 billion shares valued at P7.62 billion.

Foreign buying reached P4.96 billion while foreign selling was at P4.79 billion. DMS