MANILA, June 21 — The risk-off attitude remained Wednesday following mixed points in statements made by US Federal Reserve officials, resulting in further weakness of the Philippine peso and Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi).
The local unit ended the day at 50.29 from 50.10 Tuesday, which a trader traced to the strengthening of the US dollar brought about by statements from Federal Reserve officials, with some supporting earlier statements of more rate hikes.
The trader cited the hawkish statement of Boston Fed president Eric Rosengren, who noted that low interest rates are “less capable of offsetting shocks”.
Fed vice chair Stanley Fisher noted the need for additional structural reforms on housing finance to address possible issues in the future.
However, the trader also took note of the dovish comments by Chicago Fed president Charles Evans and Dallas Fed president Robert Kaplan, who raised the need to wait for some time before the next rate hike, given that inflation remains below the Fed’s 2 percent target.
With these factors, the local currency opened the day at 50.17, a decline from 49.99 in the previous session.
It traded between 50.295 and 50.16, putting the day’s average at 50.23.
Volume of trade reached USD727.25 million, lower than the previous session’s USD1.155 billion.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.00 and 50.20 Thursday.
Meanwhile, the PSEi further shed 0.40 percent, or 31.49 points, to 7,886.37 points.
All Shares tracked the main index and lost 0.22 percent, or 10.45 points, to 4,708.79 points.
Most of the sectoral indices also declined, led by the Services, which shed 1.11 percent, followed by Property, 0.81 percent; Financials, 0.17 percent; and Industrial, 0.004 percent.
On the other hand, Holding Firms and Mining and Oil rose 0.13 percent and 0.03 percent, respectively.
Volume for the day reached 1.1 billion, amounting to PHP8.14 billion.
Losers led gainers at 107 to 94 while 41 shares were unchanged. (Joann S. Villanueva/PNA)