Peso rises amid month-end profit-taking

AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The peso partially recovered on Thursday from its loss the previous day amid month-end profit-taking and hopes for an implementation of a stimulus measure in China.

The local currency closed at 41.87 against the US dollar, up by 15 centavos from the previous day’s finish of 42.02:$1.

Intraday high hit 41.845:$1, while intraday low settled at 41.98:$1.

Volume of trade amounted to $925.1 million from $1.217 billion previously.

The appreciation of the peso back to the 41-to-a-dollar territory came amid market speculation that the Chinese government might be prompted to implement stimulus measures to arrest slowdown of China.

Investors expect portions of the potential additional funds to be injected into the Chinese economy to be used to buy emerging-market assets, traders said. Therefore, they added, some fund holders bought such assets for income opportunity from investing early.

Traders also said the appreciation of the peso could be partially attributed simply to month-end profit-taking. Market players said people who were holding dollars sold the foreign currencies in exchange for pesos to generate profit, especially following the increase in the value of the US dollar against emerging-market currencies on Tuesday.