By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA – The US economy’s higher-than-expected expansion in the first quarter of 2019 boosted both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the Philippine peso Monday, the start of another abbreviated trading week.
The main equities index recovered and rose 0.37 percent, or 28.74 points, to 7,897.02 points.
Most of the counters also gained, with All Shares rising by 0.17 percent, or 8.04 points, to 4,864.39 points.
Holding Firms, Industrial, and Financials tracked with a jump of 0.89 percent, 0.67 percent, and 0.009 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, Mining and Oil contracted by 0.50 percent and was followed by Property, 0.21 percent, and Services, 0.16 percent.
Volume reached 1.06 billion shares amounting to PHP5.81 billion.
Losers led gainers at 97 to 89 while 52 shares were unchanged.
“The PSEi advanced as investors took their cue from upbeat US GDP (Gross Domestic Product) data,” BPI Research said after the day’s trading.
The world’s largest economy expanded by 3.2 percent in the first three months, higher than expectations of only 2.3 percent.
Relatively, the peso ended the day at 52.11 from 52.18 Friday last week.
It opened the day better at 52.09 from 52.18 in the previous session.
It traded between 52.16 and 52.06, resulting to an average of 52.106.
Volume reached USD957.02 million, higher than the USD787.81 billion at the end of last week.
Aside from the positive growth report in the US, BPI Research also cited the recent drop in global oil prices from its recent high of USD66 a barrel as another boost for the peso.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.00 and 52.30 Tuesday.
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