MANILA — The Philippines’ main equities index continued to rise Thursday as investors digest the International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) positive outlook on the domestic economy but the peso went the other way on trade concerns overseas.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 2.02 percent, or 151.85 points, to rise further to 7,665.85 points, which a trader also traced to news that officials of the US and the European Union (EU) reached a deal to prevent a trade war.
News reports said EU officials have decided to cut industrial tariffs and increase importation of soybean and natural gas from the US. President Donald Trump, meanwhile, agreed to hold off any tariff increase on European cars imported to the US.
Thus, the main stocks gauge was mirrored by most of the other counters, with the All Shares up by 1.54 percent, or 69.99 points, to 4,605.52 points.
Holding Firms registered the highest expansion for the day among the sectors after it rose 2.69 percent and was followed by Property, 1.90 percent; Industrial, 1.61 percent; Financials, 1.02 percent; and Services, 0.79 percent.
Only the Mining and Oil index ended on the red after it fell 0.64 percent.
Volume for the day was thin at 697.29 million shares amounting to Php6.66 billion.
Gainers again surpassed losers at 125 to 79 while 42 shares were unchanged.
On the other hand, the peso finished the day at 53.435 from Wednesday’s 53.37, which a trader pointed to lingering concerns of a trade war.
The trader said that although the US and EU have announced a deal to address their concerns, this is just a temporary measure since there are still unresolved issues.
The local currency opened the day at 53.29, little changed from the 53.32 in the previous session.
It ranged between 53.27 and 53.455 resulting to an average of 53.354.
Volume reached USD625.4 million, higher than the USD557.1 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 53.20 and 53.50 Friday. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
