By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — A wait-and-see stance took over local markets on Tuesday as investors hold their breaths while waiting for the outcome of rate-setting meetings of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the US Federal Reserve this week, resulting in a decline in both the peso and the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi).
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) meeting is scheduled on March 19-20, while the policy-making Monetary Board’s (MB) meeting is set on March 21.
The peso ended the day at 52.83 from 52.65 a day ago, which a trader attributed to investors decision to stay at the sidelines.
It opened the day at 52.66, little moved from the 52.63 a day ago.
It traded between 52.84 and its opening level, resulting to an average of 52.787.
Volume reached USD1.14 billion, higher than the USD846.4 million in the previous session.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.60 and 52.80 Wednesday.
Also, after a two-day rally the PSEi shed 0.38 percent, or 29.61 points, to 7,843.41 points
This was mirrored by all the other counters, with the broader All Shares sliding by 0.25 percent, or 12.13 points, to 4,833.29 points.
Mining and Oil registered the biggest drop at 1.20 percent and was followed by the Financials, 0.67 percent; Industrial, 0.50 percent; Property, 0.44 percent; Holding Firms, 0.19 percent; and Services, 0.11 percent.
Volume reached 1.4 billion shares amounting to nearly PHP6 billion.
Losers led gainers at 104 to 89 while 44 shares were unchanged.
