MANILA – Bargain hunting resulted in the recovery of the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) Friday but the peso ended the day sideways against the greenback.
The main equities gauge rose by 1.12 percent or 76.77 points, to 6,926.41 points.
All the other indexes followed, with All Shares up by 0.68 percent, or 28.52 points, to 4,199.00 points.
Holding Firms led the sectoral gauges after it rose by 2.40 percent and was trailed by Mining and Oil, 1.98 percent; Financials, 0.66 percent; Services, 0.16 percent; Industrial, 0.10 percent; and Property, 0.05 percent.
Volume totaled 16.37 billion shares amounting to PHP9.56 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 116 to 98 while 41 shares were unchanged.
“Investors returned to the Philippines for bargain hunting after successive sell-offs after recent economic data showed only a slightly better labor market amid increasing bond yields,” Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, said,
He said, “investors are now worried over potential inflation spikes driven by elevated commodity and energy prices.”
“Profit-taking dragged oil prices despite a steep drawdown in US crude inventories,” he said, citing that the price of Brent crude oil declined by 0.64 percent to USD63.93 per barrel while the price of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) slipped by 1.01 percent to USD60.52 per barrel.
On the other hand, the peso ended the week sideways against the US dollar at 48.45 from 48.5 a day ago.
It opened the day at 48.43 and traded between 48.47 and 48.39. The average level for the day is 48.44.
The volume went down to USD726.62 million from the previous session’s USD1.39 billion. (PNA)
