MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended Monday’s trade sideways in line with its counterparts in the region ahead of the Thanksgiving holiday in the US, but the peso weakened against the greenback.
The main equities index rose by 0.03 percent, or 2.10 points, to 7,282.67 points.
All Shares increased by 0.02 percent, or 0.84 points, to 3,878.95 points.
Most of the sectoral indexes finished the day on the red and these are led by the Industrial, which slipped by 0.30 percent.
Services, Property, and Holding Firms declined by 0.17 percent, 0.15 percent, and 0.09 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, Financials went up by 0.69 percent and Mining and Oil by 0.49 percent.
Volume totaled 1.06 billion shares amounting to PHP8.5 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 117 to 71 while 51 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales, noted that “historically stocks have a good track record of bucking gains in Thanksgiving week.”
“However, the resurgence in Covid-19 cases globally may either dent or cap gains on equities this week,” he said.
He, meanwhile, said “investors are also expected to direct their attention to US President Joe Biden’s pick for the next Federal Reserve Chair in the coming days.”
Also, he said the price of Brent crude, the international benchmark, slipped by 2.5 percent to USD79.19 a barrel and West Texas Intermediate (WT) declined by three percent to USD76.63 a barrel.
On the other hand, the local currency depreciated to 50.65 against the US dollar from its 50.41 close Friday last week.
It opened the day at 50.53 and traded between 50.8 and 50.53. Average level for the day stood at 50.662.
Volume totaled USD1.4 billion, higher than the previous session’s USD1.19 billion. (PNA)
