Peso Ends Almost Flat vs US Dollar Ahead of FOMC Meeting, Corporates’ Dollar Demand

By: Joann Santiago, Philippines News Agency

MANILA, Philippines – The Philippine peso ended almost unchanged to the greenback Tuesday on end-of-the-month dollar demand by companies and investors’ wait-and-see stance on the timing of the next increase in the Federal Reserve rates.

It ended the trade at P46.755 from the previous session’s P46.750, which a trader said was as expected ahead of the June meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC).

The Committee will have its next meeting on June 14-15, 2016 and some market players and analysts expect a rate hike announcement following hints from Fed officials recently.

For the day, the local unit opened at P46.72, little changed from the P46.75 a day ago.

It traded between P46.65 and P46.78 bringing the day’s average to P46.72.

Volume of trade slightly rose to $572.5 million from the previous session’s $503.1 million but the trader said this remained low due in part to outflows in the local equities market, with the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ending the day on the red after losing 0.84 percent or 62.74 points to 7,401.60 points.

For Wednesday, the currency pair is seen to trade between P46.50 and P46.70.

(Source: InterAksyon.com)