MANILA –– The Philippine peso remained firm against the greenback on Thursday amid the wait-and-see stance ahead of the release of US’ non-farm payrolls report on Friday but the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell a day after recovering.
The local currency finished the day at 52.03 from the previous session’s 51.98, which a trader also traced to the scheduled release of Philippine trade data Friday.
For the day, the local unit opened at 51.98, sideways from its 52.08 start Wednesday.
It traded between its opening level and 52.05 resulting in an average of 52.01.
Volume for the day went down to USD453.7 million from USD692.25 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 51.90 and 52.10 Friday.
On the other hand, PSEi shed 0.27 percent, or 22.84 points, to 8,381.85 points, which a trader said was mainly due to disappointing earnings performance by a listed telecommunications company.
However, the broader All Shares improved by 0.19 percent or 9.61 points, to 5,065.48 points.
It was a mix among the sectors with Services and Mining and Oil rising by 1.04 percent and 0.10 percent, respectively while Financials fell 0.90 percent; followed by Industrial, 0.75 percent; Property, 0.21 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.11 percent.
Volume reached 1.99 billion shares amounting to PHP5.8 billion.
Gainers led losers at 118 to 85 while 61 shares were unchanged. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
