MANILA – – The Philippine peso ended the week little changed against the US dollar but the main equities index ended its rally due to profit-taking.
The local currency finished Friday at 50.445 from 50.47 a day ago, which a trader pointed to investors’ risk-on sentiment after the Federal Reserve delivered on the expected hike on its key rates this week.
To date, the Fed’s key rate is between 1.25-1.5 percent and the Fed is expected to implement three more increases next year.
For the day, the local unit opened weaker at 50.48 from 50.37 a day ago.
It traded between 50.55 and 50.44, bringing the day’s average to 50.48.
Some USD447.3 million change hands, lower than the USSD475.7 million in the previous session.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.40 and 50.70 next week.
On the other hand, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) finished the week’s trading down by 1.47 percent, or 124.02 points, to 8,337.04 points, which a trader attributed to investors taking profit after the index’ rally in the last two days.
All the other indices lost at the end of this week’s trading day, with the broader All Shares down by 1.38 percent, or 68.11 points, to 4,870.43 points.
The sectors were led by the Mining and Oil, which is down by 3.62 percent due to concerns on the coal excise tax following the Bicameral Conference Committee’s approval of the tax reform proposal
Property came in second after it went down 2.28 percent and followed by Holding Firms, 1.65 percent; Industrial, 0.53 percent; Services, 0.32 percent; and Financials, 0.16 percent.
Volume for the day totaled to 941.26 million shares amounting to Php10.73 billion.
Losers surpassed the gainers at 123 to 81 while 38 shares remained unchanged. (PNA)
