THE PESO weakened slightly against the dollar on Wednesday on the back of strong US housing data as well as easing geopolitical tensions on reports that North and South Korea are moving to formally end the Korean War.

The peso ended the session at P52.07, two centavos weaker than its P52.05 finish on Tuesday.

The peso was weaker for most of the day, after opening flat at P52.05, which was also its high for the day. It dipped to as low as P52.135 against the dollar intraday.

Volume rose to $502 million from $427.3 million on Tuesday.

A trader told BusinessWorld that the currency pair has been trading within a tight range in the past few weeks.

“It has been the same for the past two or three weeks. We haven’t seen movement in dollar-peso lately,” the trader said in a phone message.

“We’re continuing to see demand coming from both sides. A few days ago, we saw oil companies buying dollars. At the same time, there were also inflows, although I’m not sure where those came from,” the trader added.

Meanwhile, another trader attributed the slight weakness of the peso to the “US housing data last night and news of (US President Donald) Trump’s diplomatic talks with North Korea.”

According to Reuters, housing starts in the US rose 1.9% last month to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 1.319 million units, more than the consensus among economists of 1.262 million units in a Reuters poll.

Meanwhile, an unidentified South Korean official said the two Koreas are set to announce a permanent end to the military conflict between Pyongyang and Seoul.

The two countries have technically been at war since the Korean War ended in 1953 with a truce and not a peace treaty.

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un will meet South Korean President Moon Jae-in for a summit.

Mr. Kim and Mr. Trump are also poised to hold talks in late May or June, according to North Korean state media.

For today, the first trader still expects the peso to move between P51.90 and P52.20, while the second trader gave a slightly narrower range of P51.95 to P52.15.

“In the next few days or weeks, we might see inflows due to the rights offering of [Bank of the Philippine Islands],” the first trader noted. — Karl Angelo N. Vidal

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