By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine peso ended the week sideways as investors await reports on the United States’ first-quarter output, while the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped ahead of the decision on US-China trade talks.
The local currency ended Friday at 52.18 from 52.14 a day ago.
Union Bank chief economist, Ruben Carlo Asuncion, attributed this development to the strengthening of the US dollar due partly to the outlook on global growth.
“Investors are still wary over the prospects of global expansion and the peso, like other emerging economies’ currencies, seems to be trending downward,” he said.
Asuncion added that investors also are all eyes on the report on US’ first-quarter gross domestic product (GDP), which will be released later in the day.
Some analysts expect better output for January to March this year after posting a 2.2-percent growth in the last quarter of last year.
This, even as outlook on the global economy remains bleak due in part to the trade tensions and other geopolitical concerns.
For the day, the peso opened better at 52.18 from 52.32 in the previous session.
It traded between 52.21 and 52.09, resulting in an average of 52.145.
Volume of trade reached USD787.81 million, lower than the USD961 million a day ago.
On the other hand, after a two-day rally, the main equities gauge declined by 0.33 percent, or 26.17 points, to 7,868.28 points.
“Local shares traded in the red as they awaited whether an endgame between China and US is finally nearing,” Regina Capital Managing Director Luis Limlingan said.
Limlingan cited reports saying the US government may agree to China’s proposal of lesser protection for US pharmaceutical products than its government provides, which in turn might get the ire of US drug industry players.
With these factors, the All Shares index also went down by 0.23 percent, or 11.31 points, to 4,856.35 points.
Only one of the counters ended positively, the Financials which rose 0.18 percent.
On the other hand, Property posted the highest drop at 0.67 percent and was followed by Industrial, 0.42 percent; Holding Firms, 0.25 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.24 percent; and Services, 0.10 percent.
Volume reached 2.5 billion shares amounting to PHP5.7 billion.
Losers led gainers at 94 to 81, while 61 shares were unchanged.
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