Peso dives to new record-low P62.265 to US dollar

The Philippine peso continued to soften against the US dollar, hitting the P62:$1 level for the first time on Friday and marking the second straight day the local currency hit a new all-time low.

The local currency shed 37.7 centavos to close at P62.265:$1 from Thursday’s finish of P61.888:$1, the previous record low. It opened at P62.05:$1 and hit as low as P62.27:$1 on intraday trading.

“The greenback strengthened anew on Middle East worries and ahead of the Jackson Hole speech by Fed Chair Warsh,” Reyes Tacandong & Co. senior adviser Jonathan Ravelas said in a mobile message.

Central bankers and economists across the globe are in Wyoming for a top-level symposium on Friday, with the Federal Reserve’s Kevin Warsh scheduled to deliver a keynote address.

Locally, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Thursday decided to hike policy rates for the third straight meeting, bringing the benchmark policy rate to 5.0%.

“Despite the 25-basis-point BSP rate hike, the peso is likely to trade within the 61.900-62.300 range, with geopolitical risks continuing to drive sentiment. Stay tuned,” Ravelas said.

“Vulnerability will remain. But has room for appreciation from remittances in (the fourth quarter of 2026),” he added.

Local equities also closed the week on a negative note, with the main Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) down 48.25 points or 0.80% to 5,956.33, and the broader All Shares index down 20.51 points or 0.61% to 3,318.99.

“The local index closed lower with the index now below 6,000 again as intense selling pressure persisted, with the MSCI Philippine Index rebalancing influencing a significant portion of market volume,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said in a separate message.

“The rebalancing triggered broad-based selling across the market as investors adjusted their positions. Sentiment was further weighed by the recent BSP rate hike, keeping investors cautious,” he added.

Nearly all sectoral indices closed in the red — financials down 1.78%, industrial down 1.51%, holding firms down 0.78%, and property down 0.62%. Services gained 0.39%, while mining and oil grew 1.91%. —AOL, GMA News