In another day of buoyant foreign exchange trading, the Jamaican dollar pushed below the $134 mark for one US dollar at the close of the market on Friday.
Dealers bought US$48.8 million at an average rate of $132.914 and sold US$46 million at $133.80 bettering the closing rate on Thursday of $134.02 for the $40.32 million sold and a bit higher than the $132.88 for the US$30.92 Million bought by dealers.
Overall the market had US$56.6 million of inflows of all currencies and US$53.17 million of sales on Friday compared to the buying of US$45.26 and the selling of US$44.58 million of all currencies.
Friday’s rate is the lowest since July 24, when it averaged $134.05 with July 23 just below at $133.39. The local dollar slipped to its lowest level ever on August 23, this year at $137.96
Jamaican$ plunges below $134 to US$1
J$ rate could make more gains
The rate of exchange for the Jamaican dollar versus the US dollar could fall below the J$134 mark at the close of trading on Thursday for the first time since the early summer.
At mid-day on Thursday, the average rate for selling US dollar, declined to J$133.999 for one US dollar, down from $134.25 on Wednesday, $134.43 on Tuesday and $134.51 on Monday.
In Thursday trading, at mid-day, dealers bought $14 million in United States dollars and sold $12 million while they bought Can$ 15 million and sold just $4 million. That compares with Can$ 5 million being purchased on Wednesday and selling of Can$11 million.
The softening in the rate for the US dollar comes from the Bank of Jamaica’s weekly intervention into the market, by a scheduled sale of US$10 million on Wednesday.
BOJ next scheduled sale is US$10 million each on 10th and 17th of October with none planned on October 24.
Jamaica dollar in modest recovery
The Jamaican dollar traded at an average of $136.94 to the US dollar on Tuesday. Dealers sold US$52.7 million and bought $49.4 million at an average of $135.81.
Tuesday’s total intake of funds, amounted to the equivalent of US$61.96 million while US$62.65 million left the system.
Unlike Friday and Tuesday, Monday’s trading was moderate, with just US$27.65 million in all currencies bought by dealers and the selling of US$30.4 million. Buying of US dollars amounted to US$24 million at an average rate of J$134.56 and selling of US$28 million at $137.10 on Monday, compared to selling of US$40 million on Friday at $137.01. On Friday dealers sold a total of US$46.8 million in all currencies, having bought US$53.5 million, including $44.7 million in US dollars currency.
On Wednesday, last week, Bank of Jamaica sold $16.5 million to dealers pushing the total purchased for that day to US$57 million, while they sold $43.3 million at an average of $137.32. Trading of all currencies saw a total of US$55 being sold against $69 million bought by dealers.
On Thursday dealers bought only US$29.78 million, but sold US$51.4 million, with the rate clearing at an average of $137.55. In all, dealers sold the equivalent of US$53 million in all currencies.
Last week Wednesday, the BOJ offered US$16.5 million to the market and received 46 bids of US$39.15 million. The average clearing rate was $137.03. The highest bid was $137.50 and the lowest $135. On Wednesday, September 5, US$11 million, to be followed by US$10 million per week, over the next three weeks.
BOJ pumped US$65M in FX market last week
Bank of Jamaica (BOJ) scheduled B-Fxitt auction last week saw 43 bids seeking to purchase US$39.9 million but only $15 million was on offer, leaving a large amount of unsatisfied demand.
Only 17 bids succeeded in getting a portion of the funds offered for sale, but then not every bid really wanted the funds. The bids left the average rate at $138.19, with $137.90 being the lowest rate that succeeded. The lowest fully successful bid was $137.97 for US$1 million. The lowest bid received was $131.10 to purchase US$1.5 million.
On Friday, BOJ offered US$40 million in what they called a flash intervention tool. On Friday August 31, last year BOJ also had a flash intervention sales that pushed the amount of buying in the foreign exchange market on that day to US$76 million. BOJ sold US$5m on the Wednesday of that week.
The flash intervention this past week, was clearly to satisfy the unmet demand from Wednesday’s auction, 42 bids were presented amounting to US$76.9 million leaving U$26.9 million of unmet demand. The average rate declined to $137.49, with the lowest accepted bid price being $136.65 and the highest being $138.70. The lowest bid that was fully allocated was US$8 million at $137.00. Bids came in as low as $129. The lowest bid that had some success was $136.65, and this compares with $137.90 on Wednesday, suggesting that those bids that did not succeed included a large amount of low bids made to satisfy the requirement that all dealers must put in a bid. On Wednesday, this week
BOJ sold US$65M into the FX market last week.
BOJ will be carrying out their usual auction at which US$15 million will be made available, to be followed by US$10 million each, on September 5 and 12.
On Thursday, dealers bought US$33.9 million at $136.37 and sold US$35.3 at $137.96, up from a rate of $137.48 on Wednesday. On Friday, US$73.2 million was purchased by dealers at $136.75 and they sold US$46.2 million at $137.90. On Monday dealers bought US$45.5 million at $136 and sold US$50.3 million at $137.52, a fall from Friday’s Average rate.
Jamaican dollar gains
Dealers in the foreign market bought US$36.76 million in US currency at an average rate of J$132.05, down $1.24 from Tuesday’s rate of $133.29.
The selling rate for the US dollar declined from J$134.05 on Tuesday as US$50.77 million was sold at an average rate of J$133.60 including US$5 million sold to Bank of Jamaica in the B-FXITT Standard Intervention Tool – buy operation, at an average J$133.65. At mid-day on Wednesday the average selling rate was $133.49 with only US$12.3 million then sold.
Overall foreign currencies purchased by dealers amounted to US$41.44 million, while selling accounted for $58 million for a net outflow of just under US$17 million. On Tuesday, net inflows of US$14 million came into the market, but for the US dollar currency, net inflows amounted to US$17 million.
For the next four weeks, the central bank will buy US$5 on Wednesday July 31 and August 8 and will sell $10 million to the market on August 19.
BOJ buys $5m at J$133.65
The rate Bank of Jamaica paid on Wednesday, July 25 to purchase US$5 million in the B-FXITT Standard Intervention Tool – buy operation average J$133.65.
Eligible dealers placed bids to buy only $5.5 million with the highest priced offer at 137.24 to sell $200,000 and the lowest at $126 for $200,000. BOJ purchased funds as high as $137.10 amounting 40 percent of the amount offered while the amount of $350,000 that was offered at $137 was fully taken up. Eligible Offers were received from 19 sellers while 18 had funds bought.
The central bank will buy US$5 on Wednesday July 31 and August 8 and will sell $10 million to the market on August 19.
Jamaican Dollar falls to $134.05 to US$
BOJ will buy US$5M from the market on Wednesday.
Foreign exchange dealers bought the equivalent of $66 million and sold US$51 million on Tuesday with the United states dollar accounting for US$60.4 million of the purchased amount and US$43.6 million of sales, a difference of US$17 million.
Similar to Monday when the purchase of US dollars were even with the sales with a total of US$44 million bought and US$44.5 million sold of all currencies, the rate paid by the public to purchase the US dollar jumped over the closing rate on Friday.
On Friday last US$37 million was purchased by dealers of all currency including US$35.5 million in US currency and US$27 million in US currency was sold at an average rate of $132.96, as a total of US$28 million sold of all currencies.
Based on the schedule of intervention by Bank of Jamaica, the central bank will buy US$5 million from the market on Wednesday to be followed by similar amounts on August 2, and August 8.
BOJ buying pushed US$ rate
The official selling rate for the US dollar ended at J$130.47 on Wednesday, rising from $130.06 on Tuesday as sale to Bank of Jamaica under its foreign exchange auction, absorbed US$10 million at an average weighted rate of $131.17.
In Wednesday’s foreign currency trading, dealers bought just over US$27 million at an average rate of J$128.79 and sold over $35.4 million. Overall US$29.4 million of all currencies were bought by dealers and they sold US$38.2 million.
Dealers attempted to sell US$11.35 million to BOJ at rates as high as $134, for US$200,000 and as low as $126.80 for US$1 million. BOJ accepted all bids up to $132.93 and partially up to $133.
BOJ has been buying funds from the market from April when they started the buy side of the BFXITT auction.
On July 11, the central bank will sell US$5 million to the market and buy US$5 million on July 25. In April US$32 million was bought from the market, by BOJ, US$35 million was purchased in May and in June US$19 million. At the auction of Wednesday June 13, the central bank offered to purchase US$10 million buy only US$9 million was offered, the average rate ended at J$132.66 with the highest rate clearing at $133.50. On the June 13, the selling rate in the daily foreign exchange market jumped J$1.29 to JS$131.58 for US$1, a direct result of the BOJ buying, the rate moved even higher on the 14th even as inflows were more than sales on that day.
The central banks purchases helped to steer the Net International Reserves US$69 million higher in May to US$3.175 billion and also grew in April as well from US$3.075 billion at the end of March. At the end of February the NIR was US$3.18 billion.
July and August are two of the months with strong inflows of foreign exchange, but with summer being the prime time of Jamaicans to travel overseas demand tends to be high as well.
US$ rate rises in BOJ FX auction
A total of 29 offers from dealers amounting to $18.35 million were presented for sale to Bank of Jamaica in the second buy side of B-FXITT foreign exchange auction held on Wednesday this week.
The bank accepted 22 offers for the US$12 million it offered to buy. Despite the excess supply, the rate for the US dollar rose above the average rates dealers sold to the general public at since beginning of last weeks. The average in the first buy auction held on April 11, resulted in an average rate of $125.42. The average rate came out at 125.93 for accepted offers but was J$126.24 for all amounts that were offered for sale. The highest priced offer was at U$127.50 and the lowest J$124.90.
BOJ buy auction of FX on Wednesday
Bank of Jamaica will be opening its foreign exchange auction – BFXITT on Wednesday to the buying US dollars for the first time .
The central bank that started the auction in July last year has only sold the US dollar to dealers buy will commence buying of US$5 million this week, in their once a week auction. The bank will be buying US$12 million April 18 and US$15 million on April 25. The bank that announces a forward 4 week schedule for the auction, has no trading scheduled for the start of May.
The buying of the US dollars in the auction comes against the back ground of revaluation of the local dollar to $125 on Tuesday, after slipping in value to just over $128 to the US dollar in March. 
At a recent briefing relating to the commencement of buying through the BFXITT system as part of dissemination information, the Governor of the central bank, Brian Wynter indicated that the decision to buy or sell is based on market intelligence provided by the dealers through their customers.
The commencement of buying of foreign currency through BFXIIT auction, also comes at a time that the central bank has reduced the percentage that it takes from the daily inflows into the market and the planned phasing out of compulsory surrender requirement by authorised dealers.
