MANILA — Risk-on sentiment returned to the Philippines’ equities market Tuesday, enabling the main index to end its two-day slide while the peso weakened to a US dollar still on trade war concerns between US and China despite reports that both sides have indicated readiness to talk.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) returned to the 8,000-level after ending the day at 8,047.03 points, up 1.44 percent or 114.65 points.
Equities firm Regina Capital cited in a report that PSEi rose to the 8,000-level in the morning session, with 8,081 points hit before the end of the first half of the day.
“This rally is expected amid quarter end window dressing,” it said.
It explained that “indicators remain bearish at least for the medium run.”
“As the range of becomes smaller, the index could continue testing the support next week especially if the rally will be short-lived,” it said citing a support level range of between 7,500-7,850 points and resistance level range of 8,000-8,200 points.
A trader said bargain hunters also helped in boosting the index after some foreign investors off-loaded some shares.
All the other counters tracked the main gauge, with the All Shares rising by 1.21 percent, or 57.79 points to 4,854.46 points.
Financials led the sectors with a hike of 2.21 percent followed by the Property, 1.99 percent; Services, 0.93 percent; Industrial, 0.92 percent; Holding Firms, 0.82 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.79 percent.
Volume for the day totaled to 2.91 billion shares amounting to PHP6.55 billion.
Gainers led losers at 148 to 64 while 33 shares were unchanged.
On the other hand, the peso ended the day at 52.32 from Monday’s 52.215, which another trader pointed to wait-and-see stance ahead of the speeches of some Federal Reserve officials later in the day.
Fed Vice Chair Randal K. Quarles is set to deliver a speech at the Operation HOPE Global Forums in Atlanta, Georgia based on the theme” “The roles of consumer protection and small business access to credit in financial inclusion.”
With investors staying at the sidelines, the local currency opened the day at 52.15, better than its 52.37 start a day ago.
It traded between 52.33 and 52.135 resulting in an average of 52.207.
Volume reached USD718.9 million, up from the previous session’s USD690.9 million.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.10 and 52.30 Wednesday. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
