By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — Philippine equities managed a miniscule growth during the week’s first trading day amid volatilities but the peso weakened against the US dollar on reports that China’s industrial profit dropped in December 2018.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.009 percent, or 0.72 points, to 8,053.92 points.
BPI Global Market Research, in its report, said the main gauge was up in the morning session “as speculations regarding the sale of a major player in the cement industry.”
However, its rise was hampered in the afternoon by the drop of shares of a major conglomerate, it added.
PSEi’s rise was mirrored by the All Shares, which improved by 0.06 percent.
It was also tracked by the Services after it rose 1.93 percent as well as the Financials, 0.89 percent; and the Mining and Oil, 0.75 percent.
On the other hand, Holding Firms declined by 0.68 percent; Industrial, 0.39 percent; and Property, 0.22 percent.
Volume reached 1.68 billion shares amounting to PHP9.13 billion.
Losers led gainers at 108 to 102 while 44 shares were unchanged.
On the other hand, the peso slipped to 52.57 from 52.535 close last January 25.
BPI attributed this to reports about the 1.9 percent decline of China’s industrial profit last December to 680.8 billion yuan due to weak factory gate prices and soft demand.
For the day, the peso opened at a better level of 52.51 from 52.9 in the previous session.
It traded between 52.38 and 52.58, resulting to an average of 52.466.
Volume reached USD886.07 million, down from the USD1.02 billion at the end of last week.
The peso is seen to trade between 52.45 and 52.65 to a dollar Tuesday.
