MANILA, March 7 (PNA) — Investors remained on risk-on attitude Friday allowing the peso to strengthen against the dollar and end the week at P44.38.
The local unit gained P0.15 from Thursday’s P44.53 as dealers continue to buy dollars ahead of the release of non-farm payment report of the US later in the day, which is expected to be positive.
A trader said the rise in the Philippines gross international reserves (GIR) also fueled the local unit’s strength during the day.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Friday reported that dollar reserves of the country ended its three-month slip after rising to US$ 80.3 billion as of end-February 2014.
The rise of the reserves from month-ago’s US$ 79.5 billion was attributed to the revaluation of the central bank’s gold holdings and gains from its foreign investments and foreign exchange operations.
The GIR target for the year is US$ 88 billion, higher than the US$ 83.2 billion actual reserves at the end of 2013.
Thus, from a P44.45 start for the day, which is better than day-ago’s P44.70 opening, the peso moved stronger and reached P44.37.
Its weakest for the day stood at P44.49, also better than the P44.72 in the previous day.
This brought the day’s average to P44.43, way better than the P44.63 in the previous trading.
Volume of trade reached US$ 908.1 million, a slight drop from the US$ 1.08 billion Thursday. (PNA)