Peso [link] broke the P58 level against the US Dollar for the first time in its history in currency trading overnight. The Philippine Peso started 2022 worth P51 per USD, a 13.4% decrease in just 9 months.
MB Quick Take: I’m not going to say anything that hasn’t already been said about this situation, I’m just noting the sad landmarks as we blow past them. Sure, remittances sourced in USD will go further when converted to PHP, but Philippine businesses with US-denominated debt are going to suffer, as well as businesses that need to purchase ingredients, equipment, or services priced in US currency.
City & Land Developers [LAND 0.76 2.56%] [link] to list a 5% stock dividend on Friday. LAND will distribute/pay just over 71.5 million common shares to its shareholders of record as of August 30, and those shares will be active and available for trading on Friday.
MB Quick Take: These little stock dividends are just back-end paperwork to make the financials look better. Still, I’ll watch the day’s liquidity to see what people are doing, but to be honest, LAND is too thinly traded to be of much interest to me. Also, it’s bonkers for LAND to have access to such a broad ticker symbol, when the PSE apparently refused to allow Solar Philippines [SPNEC 1.26 5.26%] to choose the ticker “SOLAR” when SPNEC is clearly the country’s foremost solar-focused company. But... LAND? No offense to LAND, but I’m sure they’d agree.
Raslag [ASLAG 1.81 5.73%] [link] buy-back boys were at it again, buying 500,000 shares on September 20th for just under P1 million through their private company, T.G.N. Realty. The transactions were done at an average price of P1.91/share, and accounted for just a bit over 16% of the volume done on that day.
MB Quick Take: The BB Boys doing that dollar-cost averaging (DCA)! Classic implementation of the tired Bitcoin trope, “if you wanted it at P2.08, you must love it at P1.91.”
BSP [link] will be meeting today to decide what to do about the US Fed’s 75 basis point raise.
MB Quick Take: The signals from earlier in this week were that the BSP might only do a 50 basis point raise. While the BSP has been aggressive in recent months, any hesitancy to follow the US Fed’s historic lead will immediately show itself in the currency market. The US Fed’s move will strengthen the US Dollar against all other currencies. The BSP taking a slower approach to raising rates might take some of the pressure off of homeowners and business owners looking to take out loans in the Philippines, but it comes at the cost of the strength of the Philippine Peso and the exchange rate. We’re through the P58/$ level, let’s see how long it takes to drop to P59/$ on this sad march to P60/$.
--