MANILA – The Philippines' main equities gauge recovered Wednesday after a two-day slide but the peso weakened due to positive earnings posted by US companies.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.36 percent, or 28.06 points, to 7,846.99 points.
All Shares trailed after ending the day at 4,846.05 points, up by 0.14 percent or 7.01 points.
It was a balance among the sectors with Mining and Oil, Holding Firms, and Property rising by 3.01 percent, 1.20 percent, and 0.93 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Services posted the highest drop at 1.68 percent and was followed by Industrial, 0.62 percent, and Financials, 0.10 percent.
Volume remains thin at 652.1 million shares amounting to PHP8.1 billion.
Losers continue to surpass gainers at 105 to 87 while 51 shares were unchanged.
“Investors slowly bought into the market as they continued to assess the damages from the earthquake and with no major economic releases coming from the US later tonight,” Regina Capital Managing Director Luis Limlingan said.
The Philippines' three major island groups had each been jolted by a series of earthquakes beginning Monday.
A magnitude 6.1 earthquake was recorded in Castillejos, Zambales past 5 p.m. on Monday and this affected several areas, with the 2nd District of Pampanga suffering the most, according to reports.
At around 1:37 p.m. on Tuesday, a magnitude 6.5 quake was recorded in Eastern Samar while a magnitude 4.7 jolted Davao Oriental before lunch Wednesday.
On the other hand, the peso weakened, which BPI Research said only followed the regional trend because the strong US earnings data made investors look to the West.
The local currency ended Wednesday at 52.23, a depreciation compared to its 52.04 close last Monday. There was no foreign exchange trading on Tuesday after Malacañang suspended work in government offices in the National Capital Region (NCR) following the previous day’s tremor.
The peso opened better on Wednesday at 52.14, compared to its 51.75 start in the previous session.
It traded between 52.325 and 52.1, resulting in an average of 52.195.
Volume reached USD1.37 billion, up from day-ago’s USD976.9 million.
BPI Research forecasts the peso to trade between 52.10 and 52.30 to the greenback on Thursday. (PNA)
