By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered Thursday after a four-day slide but the peso closed even weaker against the greenback.
The composite index rose 0.90 percent, or 71.01 points, to 7,991.25 points, recouping most of Wednesday’s losses but still short of retaking the 8,000-point psychological barrier.
The uptick, on the other hand, was mirrored by most of the other counters with the All Shares rising by 0.82 percent, or 39.65 points, to 4,851.64 points.
The sectors were led by the Financials, which rose 1.74 percent. It was followed by Property, 1.67 percent; Industrial, 0.97 percent; Services, 0.57 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.06 percent.
Only the Mining and Oil ended on the red after it fell 0.63 percent.
Volume reached 3.8 billion shares amounting to PHP5.1 billion.
Gainers edged losers at 115 to 92 while 39 shares were unchanged.
AAA Equities president William Matthew Cabangon, earlier in the day, projected “modest gains” for the main index at the day.
“Foreign funds have once again been net buyers, while locals continuing to sell into the rally,” he said.
Cabangon explained that “it is possible that a sentiment shift may be occurring,” thus, the change of the environment during the day’s trading.
He cited that “over the last few years, the market has believed ‘no bad news means good news,’ leading to rallies.”
“Now, it seems like ‘no good news means bad news,’ as rallies are sold into,” he said.
“With positive fundamental news coming out in January, it seems the market is starved for even more in order to continue its upward trajectory,” he added.
On the other hand, the local currency ended the day at 52.38 from 52.13 a day ago.
A trader said companies’ mid-month demand for the US dollar can be partly blamed for the peso’s weakness during the day.
For the day, the local unit opened at 52.24, down from the 51.96 start in the previous session.
It traded between 52.39 and 52.185, resulting in an average of 52.263.
Volume reached USD1.097 billion from USD1.098 billion a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.10 and 52.30 Friday.
