MANILA -- The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered after a two-day slide and positive investor sentiment improved the peso as well in Thursday trading.
The main equities index ended the day at 8,057.64 points, up 0.55 percent or 44.07 points.
All Shares posted the same growth of 0.55 percent, or 26.80 points, to 4,924.31 points.
Most of the sectoral counters tracked the main index led by the Holding Firms with 1.22 percent and was followed by the Services, 0.54 percent; and Industrial, 0.29 percent.
The Property index barely moved with an uptick of 0.001 percent while Mining and Oil and Financials fell 0.73 percent and 0.02 percent, respectively.
Volume totaled to 1.07 billion shares amounting to PHP8.4 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 115 to 86 while 48 shares were unchanged.
“Window dressing started with some names being bought up, while investors remained hopeful after Trump said a trade deal with (China President) Xi (Jinping) was possible this weekend at G-20,” Regina Capital Managing Director Luis Limlingan said.
Limlingan also cited the contribution of US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to the positive sentiments after he said that US and China are 90 percent close to striking a deal.
He, however, noted that Trump, on Wednesday, warned that the US government will impose tariffs on Chinese imports if the trade talks broke down.
Similarly, the local currency finished higher against the US dollar after ending the trade at 51.27 from the previous day’s 51.50 close.
It opened the day at 51.38, better than Wednesday’s 51.46 start.
It traded between 51.405 and 51.27, resulting to an average of 51.358.
Volume amounted to USD876.87 million, lower than the previous day’s USD942.71 million.
BPI Research said the local currency benefited from the encouraging news about the trade talks, citing a report from a Chinese newspaper saying that both the US and China have agreed to postpone the implementation of additional tariff and continue with the trade negotiations.
It forecasts the local currency to trade between 51.20 and 51.50 to a greenback on Friday. (PNA)
