MANILA, Philippines—The peso Thursday tumbled close to the crucial 45-per-dollar mark as the double-whammy of a rebounding greenback and global oil prices revived risk aversion among foreign portfolio investors.

Foreign portfolio investors pulled out about $397.2 million, net of inflows, from January to July, dumping Philippine stocks, bonds and bank products on jitters over rising inflation. It was a turnaround from the $3.6 billion in net inflow recorded in the same period last year.

The peso led the slump among Asian currencies, closing at a four-week low of 44.975 to the dollar, compared with Wednesday’s close at 44.720.

The peso opened trading at the day’s peak of 44.75 and closed near the low of 44.98—its weakest since touching 45.03 on July 17.

Currency traders said a surprisingly strong US dollar rally over the past 10 days was due to heightened concerns over global economic growth, lower commodity prices and low levels of liquidity in the financial markets.

“It’s because of the pullback in oil prices,” said Banco de Oro Universal Bank strategist Jonathan Ravelas. “This also created demand (for dollars), as some took advantage of the lower peso to hedge against a potential recovery in oil prices.”

“Also, there were fears that this might be the start of the reversal of the US dollar after a seven-year downtrend,” he added.

Ravelas said the peso could trade between 44.80 and 45.10 to the dollar this Friday. “If 45.10 holds, then it means the peso can regain lost ground,” he said.

The volume of trading on the spot currency market rose to $778 million from $696 million Wednesday.

Governor Amando Tetangco Jr. of the central bank meanwhile reported a July net inflow of foreign portfolio investments, amounting to $20.2 million, after large net outflows since March.

“Contributing to this positive development were the easing of oil prices, the strengthening of the peso and the improving fiscal position of the government,” Tetangco said in a statement.

For the January-July period, given sell-downs of Philippine assets in earlier months, the net outflow was traced to continuing risk aversion caused by the US subprime mortgage crisis and the surge in fuel and food prices across the globe.

About 59 percent of the gross foreign portfolio investments that came in during the period went to equity stocks, 23 percent went to peso-denominated government securities, and the remainder was placed in bank deposits. Edited by INQUIRER.net