The peso remained a hair’s breadth of the psychological 50-1 mark against the US dollar on Friday even as the central bank said it would “monitor market action to ensure excessive moments are in check.”

The peso opened at P49.90 against the US dollar and remained at that level for most of the trading session. It closed at P49.84 on volume of $538.2 million at the Philippine Dealing System. The currency closed at P49.98 on Thursday on turnover of $437.6 million.

Central bank governor Amando Tetangco Jr said: “The observed peso weakness is in line with the movements in regional currencies, which in turn reflect USD ( US dollar) strength “

Tetangco said the dollar’s strength “may be dampened by the long ( US ) Thanksgiving holiday.” He added that peso weakness “may also be trimmed as remittances are expected to rise ahead of the Christmas holidays.”

In a central bank survey on business expectations, “more respondents anticipated the peso to depreciate for Q4 2016 and Q1 2017.” The survey said “expectations of a weaker peso are attributable to the views of firms that are both importers and exporters, and could be due to renewed prospects of a hike in the US Federal Reserve funds rate.”

Stocks ended higher for the third straight day. The Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 16.457 points to 6,889.78. At the broader market, advances led declines 94-90 while 47 were unchanged. However, foreigners sold more. Foreign sellers reached P2.5 billion while foreign buying was at P2.29 billion. DMS.