MANILA – Risk-on sentiments ahead of the Federal Reserve meeting this week partly boosted the local stock barometer while the peso closed almost unchanged against the US dollar Monday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose for the second consecutive day after an uptick of 0.49 percent, or 29.18 points, to 5,997.14 points.
All Shares also increased after it jumped by 0.37 percent, or 13.30 points, to 3,590.68 points.
Half of the sectoral indices also finished the day with gains, led by Property, which rose by 2.13 percent; Mining and Oil, 1.25 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.63 percent.
On the other hand, Industrial fell by 0.46 percent; Financials by 0.42 percent; and Services by 0.27 percent.
Volume totaled 1.13 billion shares amounting to PHP4.7 billion.
Gainers led losers at 110 to 99, while 37 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares closed up modestly higher as the focus of the week shifts to the Federal Open Market Committee's meeting and FTSE rebalancing,” Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, said.
The US Federal Reserve will have its policy meeting on Sept. 15 to 16, and Fed officials earlier said rates are expected to remain low until the end of this year to help boost domestic growth given the impact of the pandemic.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the day sideways against the US dollar at 48.51 from 48.54 close Friday last week.
It opened the day at 48.56, little changed from its 48.6 start in the previous session.
It traded between 48.56 and 48.51, resulting in an average of 48.522.
Volume totaled to USD212.6 million, way lower than the USD903.65 million in the previous session. (PNA)
