MANILA – Anticipation for the policy decisions of several central banks this week resulted in bargain hunting in the local bourse on Tuesday while the peso ended little changed against the greenback.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.62 percent, or 44.38 points, to 7,241.99 points.
All Shares followed with a jump of 0.23 percent, or 8.90 points, to 3,841.69 points.
On the other hand, most of the sectoral indexes finished the day in the negative territory with the Services declining by 0.51 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.40 percent; Industrial, 0.38 percent; and Property, 0.22 percent.
Holding Firms gained by 1.50 percent and Financials by 1.32 percent.
Volume totaled 1.33 billion shares amounting to PHP7.6 billion.
Decliners surpassed advancers at 97 to 85, while 55 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares were slowly bought up once again ahead of key decisions by the Federal Reserve and other central banks as markets were weighed by lingering worries over the latest Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) variant,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will have its last policy meeting for the year on the 16th.
Limlingan said that “with daily Covid cases one of the lowest, and CPI (consumer price index) much better in the US, investors continued to bargain hunt for names that would continue to outperform for the year ahead.”
Meanwhile, the peso ended the day at 50.35, almost unchanged from its 50.32 close a day ago.
It opened the day at 50.37 and traded between 50.38 and 50.33.
Average level for the day stood at 50.361.
Volume totaled to USD651.7 million, lower than the USD658.1 million. (PNA)
