MANILA -- The Philippine peso on Thursday weakened against the US dollar while the main stocks gauge contracted after a three-day rally following reports of lower trade deficit in February as well as other growth concerns.
The local currency ended the day at 51.835 from the previous day's 51.9.
A trader attributed this partly to the report on the country’s trade performance in the second month this year.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported that February trade deficit amounted to USD2.79 billion, lower than the previous month's USD3.75 billion, after growth of imports slowed to 2.6 percent from month-ago's six percent expansion.
Exports, in turn, contracted by 0.9 percent, lower than the - 1.7 percent last January.
With these, the peso opened the day at 51.9 and traded between 51.95 and 51.82, resulting to an average of 51.85.
Volume reached USD690. 5 million, down from the previous day's USD990 million.
Relatively, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 0.23 percent, or 18.48 points, to 7,990.05 points.
Also, All Shares went down by 0.21 percent, or 10.39 points, to 4,899.49 points.
Half of the sectors also ended on the red and these are the Holding Firms, 1.09 points; Industrial, 0.59 percent; and Services, 0.10 percent.
Meanwhile, Mining and Oil rose by 1.13 points, Property, 0.78 percent; and Financials, 0.52 percent.
Volume reached 375.8 million shares amounting to PHP3.1 million.
Losers led gainers at 115 to 59 shares while 49 shares were unchanged. (PNA)
