MANILA -- Risk-on sentiments returned to the Philippine financial markets and allowed both the peso and the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) to close higher on Thursday.
The local currency ended the day’s trade at 51.64 from 51.79 a day ago, which a trader attributed to hopes for a positive result of the US-China trade talks.
It opened the day at 51.8, better than its 51.9 start the previous day.
It traded between 51.8 and 51.64, resulting in an average of 51.689.
Volume reached USD1.16 billion, lower than the USD1.23 billion Wednesday.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 51.60 and 51.80 on Friday.
The main equities gauge also rose by 1.09 percent, or 83.78 points, to 7,765.03 points.
“Philippine shares rose on hopes of progress in U.S.-China trade talks, though stocks pared some gains after Chinese officials said Beijing had lowered expectations for negotiations this week,” Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director Luis Limlingan said.
However, Limlingan noted, “the strong rally tailed off towards the last 15 minutes of trade after preliminary talks on the deputy level yield no result on the trade talk.”
He added that investors also considered the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last September 17 to 18, wherein US monetary officials were divided on the impact of the geopolitical issues and the US-China trade war on the US economy.
At home, all other counters also finished higher, with All Shares rising by 0.77 percent, or 35.91 points, to 4,691.90 points.
Financials reigned among the sectors after an uptick of 1.75 percent. It was followed by Property, 1.34 percent; Services, 0.88 percent; Industrial, 0.60 percent; Holding Firms, 0.50 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.41 percent.
Volume reached 1.36 billion shares amounting to PHP14.5 billion.
Gainers led losers at 93 to 78, while 53 shares were unchanged. (PNA)
