THE Philippine peso again fell on Friday, April 19, and the stock market ended the week in the red, amid investor worries over escalating tensions in the Middle East.
The peso closed at 57.65 to the US dollar, which was weaker than its Thursday close of 57.19.
Since the start of the month, the peso has lost P1.395 to the greenback, and P1.98 since the start of the year.
Bangko Sentral nga Pilipinas governor Eli Remolona, however, said that this was not a case of the peso being weak, but of the dollar being strong.
Meanwhile, the PSE index fell 80.19 points or 1.23 percent to 6,443. This was lower than its level at the start of the year.
Will Cabangon, president of AAA Securities said the sell-off on Friday was expected as investors want to play it safe over the weekend amid the uncertainties in the Middle East.
“I think fear is an understatement. What I sense right now is extreme fear, maybe even unjustifiably so,” Cabangon said in an interview with ANC.
World oil prices rallied and stock markets around the world also fell Friday as reports said explosions had been heard in Iran and Syria, fuelling fears of an escalation of the Middle East crisis after last weekend’s missile attack on Israel by Tehran.
The benchmark Brent North Sea Crude was up 1.1 percent at $88.10 per barrel, while the Nikkei 225 index was down 2.7 percent at 37,068.35; and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index fell 1 percent to 16,224.14. (ABS-CBN News/with a report from Agence France-Presse)
