By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — Profit-taking lifted the peso against the US dollar Wednesday and the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was buoyed by expectations of cuts in banks’ reserve requirement ratio (RRR).
The local currency ended the day at 52.55 from 52.7 Tuesday, which BPI Research pointed to investors taking profit.
It opened the day at 52.75, weaker than its 52.13 start in the previous day, which was traced to corporates’ mid-month US dollar demand.
It traded between 52.86 and its closing level, resulting to an average of 52.716.
Volume reached USD1.76 billion from USD1.74 billion a day ago.
The currency pair is projected to trade between 52.40 and 52.70 Thursday.
Relatively, statements by Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Governor Benjamin Diokno of the possibility of four percentage points reduction in banks’ RRR “in the next four quarters” as domestic inflation continues to decelerate lifted the main equities gauge.
PSEi rose by 0.24 percent, or 18.61 points, to 7,766.15 points.
All Shares tracked the main gauge after it improved by 0.10 percent, or 4.87 points, to 4,800.67 points.
It was a balance among the sectors, with Property, Financials, and Industrial rising by 0.92 percent, 0.88 percent, and 0.83 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, Holding Firms declined by 0.71 percent, Mining and Oil by 0.04 percent, and Services by 0.002 percent.
Volume reached 1.38 billion shares amounting to PHP5.1 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 101 to 82 while 60 shares were unchanged.
