MANILA – The wait-and-see stance ahead of the President’s State-of-the-Nation Address (SONA) next week resulted in the negative close of the local main equities index Tuesday while the peso ended the trade sideways.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.23 percent, or 14.39 points, to 6,136.31 points.
All Shares also finished on the negative territory after it fell by 0.17 percent, or 5.96 points, to 3,599.72 points.
Half of the sectoral indices tracked the main index - Financials, which slipped by 1.04 percent; Property, 0.74 percent; and Industrial, 0.49 percent.
The Mining and Oil counter rose by 0.96 percent; Services, 0.57 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.27 percent.
Volume totaled 2.52 billion shares amounting to PHP4.37 billion.
Gainers led losers at 95 to 91, while 52 shares were unchanged.
“Local shares traded slightly lower, as investors await the SONA next Monday and a lack of economic data kept many on the sidelines,” Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, said.
Other factors for today’s trading gains include assumptions on the market availability for a vaccine against the coronavirus disease (Covid-19) later this year and the rise in the number of infections worldwide.
“Oil prices were little changed as coronavirus cases continued to mount, although ongoing talks over a European Union fund to revive economies hit by the pandemic curbed initial losses,” he said.
Limlingan cited the price upticks of gold and silver in the international market.
He said gold prices rose to their record-high since September 2011 while the price of silver posted its highest in almost four years.
Meanwhile, the peso finished the day at 49.39 to a US dollar from 49.375 a day ago.
It opened the trade at 49.3, better than the previous session’s 49.45 start. It ranged between 49.4 and 49.27, resulting in an average of 49.316.
Volume totaled to USD676.25 million, higher than the USD492.33 million in the previous session. (PNA)
