By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine peso stayed firm against the US dollar Tuesday but the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell for the second consecutive day ahead of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell’s congressional hearing.
The local currency ended the day’s trade at 51.31 from 51.32 a day ago, which BPI Research attributed to investors’ decision to stay on the sidelines pending Powell’s testimony on Wednesday and Thursday.
It opened the day little changed at 51.36 from 51.35 a day ago.
It traded between 51.40 and 51.26, resulting to an average of 51.327.
Volume increased to USD761.92 million from USD651.48 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 51.20 and 51.50 on Wednesday.
On the other hand, the main equities gauge declined by 0.12 percent, or 9.48 points, 8,042.04 points.
All Shares declined by 0.26 percent, or 12.73 points, to 4,900.74 points.
Most of the sectoral indices also ended on the red, led by Services, which contracted by 1.68 percent. Holding Firms, Property and, Industrial trailed with declines of 0.32 percent, 0.14 percent; and 0.06 percent, respectively.
On the other hand, Mining and Oil rose 0.46 percent and Financials by 0.31 percent.
Volume reached 1.57 billion shares amounting to PHP5.89 billion.
Gainers led losers at 125 to 71 while 44 shares were unchanged.
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