MANILA – Profit-taking resulted in another drop in the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) on Friday but the peso appreciated against the US dollar.
The PSEi lost 1.44 percent, or 103.03 points, to 7,054.70 points.
This performance was mirrored by all the other indexes, with All Shares down by 0.77 percent, or 34.06 points, to 4,386.79 points.
Services led the sectoral indexes in terms of decline after going down by 1.94 percent. Trailing behind were Property, 1.45 percent; Holding Firms, 1.30 percent; Financials, 1.13 percent; Industrial, 0.42 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.09 percent.
Volume totaled 1.12 billion shares amounting to PHP7.7 billion.
Decliners continued to surpass advancers at 107 to 84 while 45 shares were unchanged.
“Investors of Philippine shares cashed in for the long weekend and took profit to close the month as they geared up for earnings releases next month,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales.
The Philippines observes All Saints’ Day, a national holiday, on Monday.
Limlingan also noted that “stateside investors looked past the mixed economic data released yesterday (Thursday), pushing US equities to reach record levels again yesterday.”
He was referring to the annualized gross domestic product (GDP) data report in the US for the third quarter, which came in at 2 percent, lower than expectations of 2.8 percent.
On the other hand, US jobless claims posted better-than-expected results after going down to 281,000 as of the week ending October 16 from expectations of 289,000.
“Wall Street also kept an eye on Washington events, where POTUS Jose Biden and Democrats appear to have reached an agreement on a USD1.75 trillion social spending measure,” Limlingan added.
Meanwhile, the local currency finished stronger against the US dollar at 50.415 from 50.71 on Thursday.
It opened the day at 50.63 and traded between 50.67 and 50.35, averaging at 50.552.
Volume totaled USD983.38 million, higher than the previous session’s USD899.73 million. (PNA)
