By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Bargain hunting lifted Philippine shares to the 8,000-level Wednesday and the peso also improved to 51-level against the greenback ahead of the Holy Week break.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 1.17 percent, or 92.90 points, to 8,008.53 points.
Most of the other counters tracked the main gauge, with the All Shares up by 0.88 percent, or 42.92 points, to 4,909.88 points.
The sectors were led by Holding Firms after it increased by 1.30 percent and was followed by Industrial, 1.16 percent; Property, 1.13 percent; Services, 1.05 percent; and Financials, 0.15 percent.
Only Mining and Oil registered decline after it fell 0.47 percent.
Volume reached 2.14 billion shares amounting to PHP9.83 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 110 to 96 while 42 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Managing Director, said some investors were on a wait-and-see stance before the earnings season that will start late this week.
Another factor that investors are on the lookout for is the release Wednesday night of the minutes of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting last March, when it decided to keep the Federal Reserves’ key policy rates.
Relatively, the peso ended the resumption of this week’s trading at 51.90, the strongest since its 51.72 finish last March 4.
It opened the day at 52.1 and traded between its opening and closing levels. Average for the day stood at 52.009.
Volume reached USD990 million.
The peso is seen to trade between 51.80 and 52.00 to the US dollar Thursday.
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