Peso up as foreign fund owners buy assets in emerging economies

MANILA, Philippines—The peso climbed in the first trading day of the week as optimism involving the US economy prompted foreign fund owners to purchase emerging-market assets, including those from the Philippines.

The local currency strengthened back to the 42-to-a-dollar territory to close at 42.89 against the greenback. This was stronger by 17.5 centavos from Friday’s close of 43.065:$1.

Intraday high hit 42.88:$1, while intraday low settled at 42.99:$1. Volume of trade amounted to $864.54 million from $1.123 billion previously.

The appreciation of the peso was in tandem with the rise of other major Asian currencies, traders said. They said the rise of Asian currencies came amid forecasts that home sales in the United States grew in February to probably the highest in about two years.

Rising home sales plus rising employment numbers in the United States gave hope that exporting countries like the Philippines would post growth in export revenues this year. Last year, the Philippines suffered from a nearly 7-percent contraction in export revenues partly due to anemic demand from the United States, its biggest export market.