MANILA – The local stock barometer rose anew Wednesday partly on the selloff of US Treasuries but the peso weakened against the greenback.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained by 0.61 percent, or 41.49 points, to 6,808.32 points.
All Shares gained by 0.08 percent, or 3.40 points, to 4,078.35 points.
Most of the sectoral indices also rose during the day, led by Holding Firms with a jump of 1.38 percent.
Trailing behind were Services, 0.89 percent; Property, 0.34 percent; and Industrial, 0.22 percent.
On the other hand, Financials slipped by 1.06 percent and Mining and Oil by 1.03 percent.
Volume totaled 9.14 billion shares amounting to PHP11.07 billion.
Losers led gainers at 155 to 72, while 34 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares traded higher as a selloff in government bonds made a momentary pause,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales.
Limlingan said the rate of 10-year US treasuries slipped to about 1.545 percent overnight Tuesday after hitting the 1.60-percent level.
Another factor during the day’s trading was the rise in the global oil price to about USD70 per barrel “after Saudi Arabia announced that its oil facilities were targeted by drones.”
“This is a level it hasn’t seen in 14 months,” Limlingan said.
Meanwhile, the peso ended weaker against the US dollar at 48.60 from 48.48 on Tuesday.
It opened the day’s trade at a better level of 48.45 compared to the 48.655 in the previous session, trading between 48.69 and 48.43 and resulting in an average of 48.564.
Volume totaled USD1.02 billion, higher than Tuesday’s USD890.25 million. (PNA)
