By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — An assurance from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) that the banking system remains strong despite Hanjin’s default soothed the fears in the local equities market but negative trade data from China shook the local currency.
Last week, reports that Hanjin Heavy Industries and Construction Philippines has declared bankruptcy and has a total of USD412-million worth of loans from five major domestic banks caused jitters in the domestic market.
These concerns were, however, not felt in this week’s first trading day after all the counters posted gains, led by the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), which ended the day at 8,024.14 points, up 1.52 percent or 120.05 points.
The broader All Shares went up 1.19 percent, or 56.45 points, to 4,786.60 points.
Industrial led the sectors with a jump of 2.14 percent and was followed by Holding Firms, 1.62 percent; Financials, 1.40 percent; Property, 1.28 percent; Services, 0.16 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.12 percent.
Volume reached 1.13 billion shares amounting to PHP6.8 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 125 to 80 while 42 shares were unchanged.
On the other hand, the peso shed PHP0.12 after it ended Monday at 52.26 to the greenback from its 52.14 close Friday last week.
A trader pointed this to reports about the 4.4 percent decline in China’s exports in December 2018 and the 7.6 percent contraction in imports during the same month.
Despite this report, the peso opened the day better at 52.17 to the greenback from its 52.28 start in the previous session.
It even improved to 52.11 but concerns about the growth of the world’s second largest economy affected the unit mid-trade, pushing it to as low as 52.275 to the US dollar.
This brought the day’s average to 52.197, slightly better than its 52.235 at the end of last week.
Volume of trade amounted to USD693.89 million, lower than its USD831 million in the previous trading.
The peso is seen to trade between 52.10 and 52.30 to a dollar Tuesday.
