MANILA – Bargain hunting lifted the main stocks gauge on Tuesday while the peso closed the day sideways against the US dollar ahead of the Federal Reserve’s rate decision announcement.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 2.98 percent, or 202.97 points, to 7,019.92 points.
All Shares followed with a jump of 1.53 percent, or 55.58 points, to 3,694.07 points.
Most of the sectoral counters also improved during the day – Property, 3.51 percent; Financials, 3.07 percent; Holding Firms, 2.95 percent; Industrial, 2.05 percent; and Services, 0.72 percent.
Only Mining and Oil finished in the negative territory after it fell 3.70 percent.
Volume reached 3.61 billion shares, amounting to PHP9.61 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 138 to 76, while 36 shares were unchanged.
“Investors turned into bargain hunters with many looking ahead to the Federal Reserve’s next monetary policy decision later this week amid an ongoing war in Ukraine and soaring inflation,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) will have its meeting on March 15 to 16 and it is widely expected to start hiking its key rates partly on the acceleration of the consumer price index (CPI) in the US, which rose further to another four-decade high annual rate of 7.9 percent last February.
The Fed is projected to hike its key rates by 25 basis points this week from the current zero to 0.25 percent.
Meanwhile, the peso closed the day at 52.415 against the greenback from its 52.475 finish a day ago.
It opened the day at 52.495 and traded between 52.495 and 52.33.
The average level for the day stood at 52.402.
Volume reached USD1.01 billion, higher than the previous session’s USD806.55 million. (PNA)
