MANILA – The main equities index recovered Thursday after a two-day slide while the peso sustained its sideways close against the US dollar partly on investors’ continued watch of the political developments in the US.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) improved by 1.02 percent, or 71.76 points, to 7,119.61 points.
All Shares followed with 0.98 percent or a 41.35-point increase to 4,271.49 points.
The same story goes for the sectoral gauges, with Financials leading the list after a jump of 4.28 percent.
It was trailed by the Mining and Oil index which rose by 3.84 percent; Services, 0.87 percent; Holding Firms, 0.58 percent; Property, 0.16 percent; and Industrial, 0.08 percent.
Volume totaled 46.43 billion shares amounting to PHP8.73 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 159 to 72, while 31 shares were unchanged.
Aside from the polls-related news from the US, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales Luis Limlingan also cited as an additional factor for the rise of the day’s equities trading the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last December.
He said the minutes “suggested that near-term adjustments to asset purchases are unlikely but (it) provided little new insight into when the tapering of asset purchases might begin.”
The minutes also showed while all the participants continue to see the US economy as resilient, economic recovery will likely slow given the development of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19), he added.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the day’s trade at 48.07 against the greenback from 48.033 Wednesday.
It opened the day at 48.045, sideways from its 48.055 start in the previous session. It traded between 48.07 and 48.04, resulting in an average of 48.053.
Volume totaled USD518.45 million, higher than day-ago’s USD488.8 million. (PNA)
