MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended the week’s first trading day up on bargain hunting while the peso finished sideways against the US dollar.
The main equities index rose by 0.23 percent, or 14.22 points, to 6,283.58 points.
All Shares increased by 0.27 percent, or 10.43 points, to 3,861.41 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges also gained during the day, led by the Property index after it jumped by 3.61 percent.
Services index rose by 0.46 percent, Mining and Oil by 0.27 percent, and Industrial by 0.18 percent.
Holding Firms slipped by 1.30 percent and Financials by 0.29 percent.
Volume totaled 2.31 billion shares amounting to PHP5 billion.
Losers led gainers at 99 to 85, while 58 shares were unchanged.
“Share succumbed to profit-taking intraday before some MOC (market-on-close) bargain hunting due to the overhang of inflation concerns in many regional markets,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales.
Limlingan said commodity prices rose last Friday “as the greenback continued to dip, but gains were capped by the increasing Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) cases in India.”
He said the price of Brent crude oil in the international market increased by 2.48 percent to USD68.71 per barrel and the West Texas Intermediate jumped by 2.43 percent to USD65.73 per barrel.
“Philippine investors are also awaiting the release of overseas remittances and foreign reserves this year for market cues,” he added.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the trade sideways against the US dollar at 47.855 from its 47.81 close at the end of last week.
It opened the day at 47.8 and traded between 47.865 and 47.8.
Average level for the day stood at 47.822.
Volume totaled USD567.19 million, lower than the previous trading’s USD634.3 million. (PNA)
