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Philippines: Peso keeps gaining, hits P58.22 vs dollar

THE peso came close to returning to the P57:$1 level on Thursday, strengthening to as much as P58.09 during intraday trade before closing at P58.22 against the greenback.

The 21-centavo gain made for a best finish since September and was a significant improvement after the currency hit a record low of P59:$1 last October 3.

Trading opened at P58.25 with the highest offer at P58.45. Volume reached $1.077 billion, up from $845.5 million the previous day.

Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp., said the peso appreciated “after [the] local stock market gauge, the PSEi (Philippine Stock Exchange index), gained for the 4th straight day, by+109.05 points or +1.8 percent to again close at the intraday high of 6230.58.”

“The peso also continued to appreciate after global crude oil prices still lingered near nine-month lows (since February 3, 2022 or before the Russia-Ukraine war started on February 24, 2022),” he added.

The dollar-peso exchange rate has still increased by 14.2 percent, or a total of P7.22 since the start of the year. This is somewhat aligned with other regional currencies such as the Thai baht, Malaysian ringgit, Chinese yuan and Indian rupee, Ricafort said.

Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2022/10/28/business/top-business/peso-keeps-gaining-hits-p5822-vs-dollar/1864002