MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended Monday in the negative territory, still partly on concerns about the US inflation rate while the peso weakened to the 48-level against the greenback.
The main stock gauge slipped by 0.55 percent, or 34.36 points, to 6,164.89 points.
All Shares declined by 0.56 percent, or 21.46 points, to 3,821.27 points.
All the sectoral counters tracked PSEi’s performance, with Property posting the biggest drop of 1.68 percent.
It was trailed by the Mining and Oil index, 0.63 percent; Industrial, 0.44 percent; Financials, 0.24 percent; Services, 0.23 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.19 percent.
Volume totaled 1.09 billion shares amounting to PHP4.48 billion.
Losers led gainers at 127 to 79, while 40 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares kicked off Monday on a weak note on concerns about the Federal Reserve Policy in the face of rising inflation pressures,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales.
He said sentiments were “pulled down as the US market has long traded at a premium to global peers but the trend has been reinforced by the steady transformation of the index towards technology-oriented companies that are growing quickly and are very profitable.”
He said the market expects the rotation trades to continue to play out with the vaccine rollout and reopening of the economy.
“Strong economic data has put pressure on growth stocks, which are more likely to be impacted by potential interest hike(s),” he added.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the day at 48.065 from 47.945 at the end of last week’s trading.
It opened the day at 47.94 and traded between 47.94 and 48.085.
Average level for the day stood at 48.019.
Volume totaled to USD937.64 million, lower than last Friday’s USD941.25 million. (PNA)
