by Joann Villanueva/PNA
The World Bank’s (WB) revision of its 2019 growth forecast for the Philippines was widely seen as a major contributor to the peso going sideways and for the main equities gauge to end lower at the start of the week’s trading.
The peso ended Monday’s session at 52.505 from 52.5 Friday last week, which a trader said can be partly traced to WB’s decision to cut its growth forecast for the domestic economy this year to 6.4 percent from 6.5 percent.
The multilateral lender slashed its growth projection in anticipation of the impact of the national budget’s delayed approval as well as the El Niño dry spell’s effect on agricultural productivity.
For the day, the peso opened at 52.6, better than its 52.7 start in the previous session.
It improved to 52.47 mid-trade but the weakest is 52.6. Average level for the day stood at 52.516.
Volume reached USD801.53 million, lower than the previous session’s USD901.77 million.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.40 and 52.60 Tuesday.
On the other hand, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 1.02 percent, or 80.62 points, to 7,840.31 points.
All Shares gave up 0.82 percent, or 40.04 points, to 4,824.13 points.
Most of the sectors also finished on the red, with Mining and Oil posting the highest drop at 3.33 percent.
It was followed by the Financials, 1.87 percent; Services, 1.74 percent; Property, 0.82 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.57 percent.
Only the Industrial posted uptick after it rose 0.08 percent.
Volume reached 684.6 million shares amounting to PHP5.53 billion.
Losers led gainers at 120 to 65 while 55 shares were unchanged.
