Peso slips on foreign selling in PHL shares

The peso failed to sustain a strong footing against the greenback on Wednesday, toppled by foreign selling in Philippine shares.

The local currency closed at P46.221:$1 or 14 centavos softer than Tuesday's 46.085.

"The peso was further weakened by foreign selling in the local equity market, which slipped for another session as risk-off sentiment dominated the afternoon session," Nicholas Antonio T. Mapa, associate economist at the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), said in an emailed commentary.

Data from the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) showed that foreign selling on Wednesday was registered at P3.679 billion while foreign buying was at P3.089 billion.

Mapa noted there was a sell-off in Asian currencies, following the end of a three-day strike of Kuwaiti oil workers.

"The peso tracked the Asian sell-off with risk currencies tracking the movement of oil prices. Oil prices had been rallying on a supply outage caused by a Kuwaiti worker strike. Wednesday morning saw the strike called off, forcing the reversal in sentiment," he said.

"Crude futures fell on Wednesday after Kuwaiti oil workers ended a three-day strike that had cut production from the Middle Eastern country," Reuters said in a report. – Jon Viktor Cabuenas/VDS, GMA News