/PNA
MANILA — As the market digests news of stabilizing inflation, the main equities index came back to life on Thursday while the peso was almost unchanged.
After a two-day slide, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered and gained 0.52 percent, or 41.85 points, to 8,100.30 points.
BPI Financial Markets Group Research, in its market report, said the main gauge rose ahead of the Monetary Board’s (MB) announcement that it would be keeping key rates steady for the moment.
The Board maintained the central bank’s key policy rates on expectations that inflation will continue to decline and go back to within target levels as early as March this year.
Thus, the broader All Shares mirrored the main index’ rise after it went up by 0.27 percent, or 13.09 points, to 4,906.57 points.
Most of the sectors also gained during the day, led by the Holding Firms, 1.06 percent; and was followed by the Financials, 0.25 percent; Property, 0.17 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.005 percent.
Both the Industrial and Services, meanwhile, dropped by 0.04 percent.
Volume reached 3.43 billion shares amounting to PHP7.42 billion. Losers led gainers at 115 to 96 while 47 shares were unchanged.
Relatively, the peso ended the day at 52.24 from 52.235 Wednesday.
It opened the day at 52.30, little changed from the 52.34 a day ago. It traded between 52.365 and 52.20, resulting to an average of 52.29. Volume surged to USD1.27 billion from USD746.4 million in the previous session.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.15-52.35 Friday.
