By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — Risk-on sentiment following the enactment of several economic measures such as the rice tariffication and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) Charter amendments boosted both the peso and the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi).
The local currency ended the day at 52.33 from 52.43 Friday last week, which a trader attributed to the signing of these measures.
It opened the day at 52.34, little changed from 52.35 start in the previous session.
It traded between 52.38 and 52.3, resulting to an average of 52.344.
Volume reached USD816.3 million, up from the USD756.9 million at the end of last week.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.20 and 52.40 Tuesday.
Relatively, the main stocks gauge ended the week’s first trading day up by 0.79 percent, or 62.44 points, to 7,971.33 points.
A trader said investors took note of the latest news about US-China trade discussions which ended last Friday.
Reports said officials from both countries agreed “in principle” on key issues and discussions will continue in the US this week.
Emboldened by the positive outcome of the meeting in Beijing last week, most of counters in the local stock market ended up, with the All Shares rising by 0.38 percent, or 18.28 points, to 4,841.60 points.
Half of the sectors increased, led by the Services, 0.66 percent; Holding Firms, 0.48 percent; and Financials, 0.08 percent.
On the other hand, Property fell 0.77 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.41 percent; and Industrial, 0.26 percent.
Volume reached 1.4 billion shares amounting to PHP11.1 billion.
Losers led gainers at 114 to 97 while 39 shares were unchanged.
