PNA graphics
MANILA – The local bourse’s main index ended in the negative territory anew on Thursday amid another decline in the United States equities and wait-and-see stance for the policy rate decision of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP), while the peso ended sideways against the US dollar.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.30 percent, or 19.3 points, to 6,404.91 points.
All Shares followed with a decline of 0.27 percent, or 9.12 points, to 3,417.69 points.
Most of the sectoral indices also closed lower, led by the Industrial index, which fell 1.25 percent, and followed by Mining and Oil, 0.60 percent; Property, 0.49 percent; Financials, 0.43 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.13 percent.
Only the Services index gained during the day after rising by 0.96 percent.
Volume reached 926.13 million shares amounting to PHP5.45 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 106 to 73, while 47 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales, said tech-powered rally ended, resulting in the drop in US equities’ rise.
Anticipations for the announcement on the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) rate decision, which is the widely expected pause, contributed to the decline in the PSEi.
“Today’s moves also came in on the back of the comments from Fed (Federal Reserve) Chair (Jerome) Powell saying more rate hikes are likely ahead to combat inflation,” Limlingan said.
This was after the Federal Reserve, during the meeting of its Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) earlier this month, kept its funds rate steady after hiking it for a total of 500 basis points in 10 consecutive meetings to between 5.00 to 5.25 basis points.
Forecasts of additional hikes in the coming months, thus markets are on the lookout for signs during Powell’s speech before the US Senate later in the day.
Meanwhile, the peso ended the day at 55.62, little changed from its 55.645 close a day ago.
It opened the day at 55.57 and traded between 55.66 and 55.53, averaging at 55.595.
Volume declined to USD767.4 million from a little more than USD1 billion the previous day.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the peso closed to its new two-month low against the US dollar due partly to the drop in US stocks.
He said signals for a possible cut in the BSP’s key rates also factored in recent trading, along with the Fed decisions.
For Friday, he forecast the peso to trade between 55.50 and 55.70 against the US dollar. (PNA)
