By: (PNA)
MANILA — The Philippine peso improved further Thursday due to a general weakness in the US dollar while the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended flat.
The local currency finished the day at 52.57 from 52.95 a day ago, which a trader attributed to expectations of large inflows in the equities market.
“The theme for the past weeks is for a stronger peso,” the trader said, citing that the report on the Philippine economy’s third quarter 2018 growth, which is at 6.1 percent from the previous quarter’s 6.2 percent, is a non-event.
“It came in line with estimates,” the trader said.
On the impact of US elections, the trader said the “markets are still digesting how a Democratic House and Republican Senate would perform.”
For Friday’s session, the currency pair is seen to trade between 52.50 and 52.80.
On the other hand, the PSEi ended the day flat at 7,035.71 points, up 0.03 percent or 1.78 points.
Bank of the Philippine Island (BPI), in its market report, said the local main equities gauge failed to rise vis-a-vis its counterparts in the region due to the lower-than-expected gross domestic product (GPD) report for the third quarter of the year.
Median expectation is a growth of 6.2 percent.
On the other hand, the broader All Shares fell 0.21 percent, or 9.05 points, to 4,289.87 points.
It was a mix among the sectors with Property, Industrial, and Financials up by 0.74 percent, 0.33 percent, and 0.13 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Mining and Oil dropped by 7.03 percent, Services by 1.33 percent, and Holding Firms, 0.06 percent.
Volume reached 1.56 billion shares amounting to PHP8.39 billion.
Losers led gainers at 132 to 70 while 50 shares were unchanged.
