By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — The United States-China trade discussions resumed Wednesday and was a major contributing factor to risk-off sentiments, which resulted in the slide of both the Philippine peso and the main stocks gauge.
The local currency ended the day’s trade at 52.61 from the previous session’s 52.445, which a trader also attributed to end-of-the-month dollar demand by corporates.
It opened the day at 52.6, down from its 52.45 start Tuesday.
It improved to as much as 52.54 but also moved to 52.64, resulting to an average of 52.581.
Volume reached USD704.2 million, lower than the USD770.05 million a day ago.
The currency pair is projected to trade between 52.50 and 52.70 Thursday.
Also, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.58 percent, or 45.98 points, to 7,861.05.
This was the trend for most of the counters, with the All Shares down by 0.51 percent, or 24.55 points, to 4,835.90 points.
Financials posted the highest drop among the sectors after it fell 0.93 percent and was followed by the Mining and Oil, 0.91 percent; Industrial, 0.81 percent; Property, 0.75 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.43 percent.
Only Services ended on a positive note after it rose 0.04 percent.
Volume improved from the million-level after it rose to 1.2 billion amounting to PHP5.6 billion.
Losers led gainers at 139 to 71 while 49 shares were unchanged.
