Peso continues to weaken, hits 64 vs dollar

MANILA — The peso hit a record low of P64 against the dollar during intraday trading on Tuesday, October 27.

The local currency opened at 63.95 versus the US dollar and hit 64 as of 11:05 a.m., according to the website of the Bankers Association of the Philippines. 

The peso closed at a record low of P63.95 to the dollar on Monday.

Will Cabangon, president of stock brokerage firm AAA Securities, said a weaker peso may benefit companies that are strong dollar earners.

“When you convert those dollars into pesos, the weaker the peso gets, the more earnings that they have.”

He also said that stock market investors should be on the lookout for bargains in the market.

“I think some of these really high quality companies are basically being given away for free right now,” he said. 

“I still really like the utilities. They’ve taken quite the beating because utilities are very sensitive to interest rates, but interest rates don’t rise forever. It gets to a point where the central bank will stop hiking. I think that’s sooner than later, because as you’ve seen, GDP figures kind of slowed down quite a bit.”

“I think we’re getting to the pain points now, where the BSP will consider slowing down interest rate hikes. So once that stops, I expect the utilities to bounce back with a vengeance,” he said.