MANILA — Risk-off sentiments were high in the Philippines’ foreign exchange and equities markets Monday due to lingering concerns about the US economy.
The peso ended the day at 52.52 from 52.32 Friday last week, which a trader said was in keeping with the trend in the region.
This, as concerns on the output of the world’s largest economy this year is again in question, given the partial shutdown of the US government early in the year – coupled with some unresolved trade issues and other issues.
For the day, the peso opened at 52.55, sideways from the 52.6 start in the previous session.
It strengthened to 52.49 but also slipped to 52.66, resulting to an average of 52.56.
Volume reached USD886.2 million, a decline from the nearly USD1.2 billion at the end of last week.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.50 and 52.70 Tuesday.
Relatively, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell 1.88 percent, or 150.40 points, to 7,863.02 points.
Another trader attributed this to the slide of the Wall Street on Friday, due in part to the weak factory report both from the US and Europe, which in turn, raised worries on global growth.
Thus, all the other counters tracked the main gauge, with the All Shares losing 1.43 percent, or 70.44 points, to 4,842.87 points.
Holding Firms registered the highest decline at 2.74 percent and was followed by Mining and Oil, 2.38 percent; Financials, 1.82 percent; Property, 1.34 percent; Industrial, 0.82 percent; and Services, 0.76 percent.
Volume reached 708.8 million shares amounting to PHP5.4 billion.
Losers led gainers at 142 to 47 while 41 shares were unchanged.
