Peso gains amid lack of dollar demand

MANILA, Philippines - The peso nearly breached the P47-per-dollar level Tuesday, closing at P47.04 and gaining 22 centavos from Monday. A trader said: "We just actually followed the better performance of the US market. Other than that, no other factor [could account for] the peso appreciation." "But I think this will be short-lived. Personally, I think we will see a weaker peso for the coming days. Actually there shouldn’t be any reason for the peso to rally even with better equities performance," he added. Another trader pointed out that most Asian currencies appreciated and even the stock market rose a bit. "The movement was actually just within a range. It was more of sideways. The peso appreciated because of a weaker demand for dollar," he noted. In Tuesday’s trading, the peso climbed as high as P46.98 before reaching an intraday low of P47.13. Total transacted dollars were firmer at $665 million from the previous trading s $451.7 million. — Ma. Aizl Camille B. Cabarles, BusinessWorld