The peso closed at a 10-year low of P50.31 against the US dollar after a fresh intraday tally of P50.345 on Thursday.

The Philippine currency closed at P50.28 on Wednesday. It is one centavo higher than the P50.32 recorded in September 2006. Volume at the Philippine Dealing System, however, went down from Wednesday’s $429.8 million to Thursday’s $409 million.

The peso’s weakness mirrored a decline in Asian currencies due to the stronger dollar. The South Korean won led currencies in the region which ended lower.

Stocks ended higher, with the Philippine Stock Exchange index up 64.24 points to end at 7,234.94.

Volume breached the one billion mark as turnover jumped to 4.39 billion shares valued at P5.65 billion. On Wednesday, volume reached 956.43 million valued at P5.2 billion.

However, foreign selling was at P3.7 billion while foreign buying amounted to P 3.28 billion. DMS