MANILA – The Philippine peso on Thursday ended sideways against the greenback but the main equities gauge slipped in line with the performance of its counterparts in the region on worries over the Covid-19 pandemic.
The local currency ended the day at 50.85 from 50.88 in the previous day.
It opened the day at 51.00, little changed from the 50.70 start in the previous session, and strengthened to as much as 50.80 but also weakened to 51.03, resulting in an average of 50.911.
Volume totaled USD424.9 million, higher than the USD346 million on Wednesday.
Meanwhile, after two consecutive days of improvement, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped to 5,342.31 points, down by 1.22 percent or 66.21 points.
All Shares went down by 1.23 percent, or 40.33 points, to 3,238.48 points.
Services posted the highest drop with 3.71 percent and was trailed by the Financials, 3.60 percent; Holding Firms, 1.74 percent; Industrial, 1.32 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.27 percent.
Only the Property index gained during the day at 3.09 percent.
Volume totaled 384.02 million shares amounting to PHP4.4 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 126 to 54, while 35 shares were unchanged.
Regina Capital managing director Luis Limlingan said the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic fears further drove markets lower.
“Local stocks sank as all regional markets kicked off the second quarter on poor macro data and concerns the coronavirus will keep the economy shut down longer than expected,” he said.
To date, total Covid-19 cases worldwide have reached more than 937,800. Some 195,188 patients have recovered and 47,273 have died.
Oil prices in the international market remain at about USD20 per barrel as stockpiles continue to rise. (PNA)
