MANILA – The local stock barometer ended the week in negative territory due to correction but the peso gained against the US dollar.
After a four-day rally, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEI) lost 1.27 percent, or 85.29 points, to 6,633.22 points.
It was tracked by all the other counters, with the All Shares index down by 0.43 percent, or 17.91 points, to 4,123.72 points.
Holding Firms posted the biggest decline among the sectoral indices after it fell by 1.63 percent.
Property slipped by 1.27 percent; Financials, 0.98 percent; Industrial, 0.62 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.60 percent; and Services, 0.49 percent.
Volume totaled 2.04 billion shares amounting to PHP6.3 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 113 to 78, while 47 shares were unchanged.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort attributed the negative close of the main index to the rise in coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the country, due partly to the Delta variant, and its impact on the quarantine classification.
However, Ricafort said this is expected to be countered by the arrival of more vaccines against Covid-19, as well as the increase in the number of people vaccinated against the virus.
He also cited as factors in the coming days the increase in the government’s infrastructure program and the developments in the US, such as the decisions of the Federal Reserve and economic prints in the world’s largest economy.
For one, Metro Manila's quarantine classification has been lowered from the strictest level, the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ), to modified ECQ from August 21 to 31.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the week up against the US dollar at 50.37 from 50.55 a day ago.
It opened the day at 50.48 and traded between 50.54 and 50.3, averaging at 50.424.
Volume reached USD977.6 million, lower than the previous session’s USD1.08 billion. (PNA)
