MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose for the second consecutive day Thursday while the peso ended still sideways against the greenback.
The main equities index increased by 0.26 percent, or 16.75 points, to 6,539.96 points.
All Shares followed with a jump of 0.33 percent, or 12.96 points, to 3,997.58 points.
Most of the sectoral indexes also gained during the day namely the Mining and Oil, 5.38 percent; Property, 1.39 percent; Services, 0.52 percent; and Financials, 0.11 percent.
On the other hand, Industrial lost 0.79 percent and Holding Firms, 0.15 percent.
Volume totaled 4.3 billion shares amounting to PHP5.42 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 103 to 100, while 46 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, attributed PSEI’s performance during the day to indications of uptick in both US’ growth and inflation rate based on the Federal Reserve’s Beige Book.
“The Fed adopted flexible average inflation targeting and outcome-based forward guidance, which the market views as consistent with expectations of liftoff in early 2024,” he said.
Limlingan also cited the rise of US’ import prices due to petroleum, industrial supplies and food.
He said the price of oil in the international market also increased after the International Energy Agency (IEA) reported a pick-up in demand.
This report, he said, boosted optimism on crude demand recovery.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the trade still sideways against the US dollar at 48.44 from 48.499 a day ago.
It opened the session at 48.465 and traded between 48.51 and 48.43.
Average level for the day stood at 48.479.
Volume of trade totaled to USD699.65 million, higher than the previous day’s USD664.35 million. (PNA)
