MANILA — The softening of global oil prices boosted the Philippine Peso but the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined anew as tensions between the US and Saudi Arabia heat up.
The Peso finished the day at 53.725, better than the 53.815 close on Tuesday.
A trader attributed this to the 4 percent slip in global oil prices to USD66.27 per barrel after Saudi Arabia said it will address any gap if supply is down as a result of the US sanctions on Iran.
For the day, the Peso opened at 53.78, an improvement from the 53.88 start in the previous session, and traded between 53.79 and 53.69, resulting in an average of 53.737.
Volume reached USD707.05 million, lower than the USD711.9 million.
On the other hand, the main equities gauge slid by 0.95 percent, or 68.20 points, to 7,129.42 points, which Regina Capital Development Corp. (RCDC) managing director Luis Limlingan said is in line with the performance of its counterparts in the region.
He traced this outcome to “renewed fears regarding the trade wars plus growing concerns that the US economy may have peaked.”
He said investors are also looking forward to the expected meeting between US President Donald Trump and China President Xi Jinping in November, but noted that expectations for the one-on-one meeting “are already being lowered with officials from both sides increasingly pessimistic about prospects for a resolution to their deepening trade war.”
Expectations of a sustained increase in the Federal Reserve’s key policy rates is another factor for the development in the equities market, with some investors giving up some local shares over US assets.
The decline of the main equities gauge was mirrored by most counters, with All Shares down by 0.49 percent, or 21.53 points, to 4,362.31 points.
Financials registered the highest drop at 1.82 percent and was followed by Mining and Oil, 0.86 percent; Industrial, 0.82 percent; Property, 0.73 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.67 percent.
Only Services registered gains after it rose 0.41 percent.
Volume reached 1.1 billion shares amounting to PHP4.6 billion.
Losers surpassed gainers at 112 to 74 while 45 stocks were unchanged. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
