Peso slightly down vs. dollar

Investors avoided the risk of betting against the safe-haven dollar Thursday, further softening the peso at the foreign exchange market.

A dollar fetched P47.030 or 0.5 centavos more than Wednesday’s finish of P47.025.

“Risk averse as China’s stock market was halted again after losing 7 percent right after opening,” Josef Paolo Reyes, foreign exchange trader at the Development Bank of the Philippines said.

The peso is expected to continue to weaken against the greenback in the short- to medium-term, “as long as China is showing signs of a hard slowdown and with geopolitical risks like the North Korea bomb test and the tensions between Iran and Saudi,” he said. – VS, GMA News