By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — Foreign investment inflows continue to back the Philippine peso amid the risk-off sentiment triggered by the meeting between US and Chinese officials in Beijing this week, which in turn, disadvantaged the equities index.
The local currency ended Tuesday at 52.075 from 52.11 Monday, which a trader explained is expected since inflows to the local stock market remains strong.
For the day, the peso opened at 52.185 from 52.11 a day ago.
It improved to its closing level but also slipped to 52.27, resulting to an average of 52.195.
Volume reached USD1.16 billion, up from the previous session’s USD1.14 billion.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.00 and 52.20 Wednesday.
On the other hand, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.64 percent, or 51.62 points, to 8,009.92 points.
The broader All Shares retreated by 0.70 percent or 34.07 points, to 4,858.41 points.
Only one sectoral index, Services, gained during the day after it rose 0.16 percent.
The rest ended on the red and these were led by the Industrial, 1.24 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.93 percent; Holding Firms, 0.75 percent; Property, 0.64 percent; and Financials, 0.27 percent.
Volume reached 2.74 billion shares amounting to PHP7.24 billion.
Losers continue to edge gainers at 124 to 86 while 46 shares were unchanged.
Papa Securities, in its market report, traced the further decline of the main equities gauge to profit-taking on account of the “lack of fresh catalysts.”
It also said that net foreign buying is “notably cooling down” after it only amounted to PHP261 million at the second trading day this week from almost PHP1 billion a week ago.
“With the PSEi already showing signs of weakness with its intraday dip below the 8K mark in the afternoon, watch out if the level will continue to hold for the rest of the week,” it added.
