MANILA – The Philippine peso ended almost unchanged against the US dollar on Wednesday but the main equities gauge lost anew.
The local currency finished the day at 50.8 to the greenback from 50.79 a day ago.
It opened the day at 50.85, little changed from its 50.83 start Tuesday.
It traded between 50.88 and 50.79, resulting in an average of 50.835.
Volume totaled to USD212.77 million, lower than the USD381.9 million a day ago.
On the other hand, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped for the third consecutive day and ended at 5,573.75 points, down by 0.33 percent or 18.50 points.
All Shares also declined and ended the day at 3,388.17 points, a drop of 0.05 percent or 1.57 points.
Mining and Oil posted the biggest slide with 1.91 percent and was trailed by the Property, 1.65 percent; Holding Firms, 0.74 percent; and Financials, 0.48 percent.
On the other hand, Services rose by 2.24 percent and Industrial, 0.31 percent.
Volume totaled 600.52 million shares amounting to PHP5.07 billion.
Losers led gainers at 101 to 67, while 54 shares were unchanged.
The drop in the prices of oil in the international market was among the culprits of investors’ risk-off sentiment, Regina Capital Managing Director Luis Limlingan said.
Brent crude oil contracts expiring in June 2020 dropped 43 percent to below US12 per barrel in New York, still due to low demand caused by the global pandemic.
Brent futures for June dropped 24 percent to USD19.33 per barrel.
With this development, ministers from OPEC+ held an unscheduled conference call on Tuesday but no new policy measures were agreed on, although Saudi Arabia said it is ready for more action on top of the targeted production cuts.
Also, US President Donald Trump said his government is studying a plan to make funds available to the oil industry to prevent job losses.
Meanwhile, on the coronavirus disease (Covid-19), France reported the lowest number of patients in intensive care in the last three weeks and new deaths are also fewer.
In Italy, Covid-19 recoveries almost exceeded new cases for the first time.
Singapore, on the other hand, will extend its lockdown period for four more weeks after new cases surpassed 1,000 a day for the second consecutive day. (PNA)
