By Joann Villanueva/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The Philippine peso ended Monday little changed amid the strengthening of the US Dollar but the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined due to lingering uncertainties overseas.
The local currency ended the day at 51.076 from 51.04 close Friday last week, which BPI Research attributed to reports about the lower possible cuts in the Federal Reserve rates and the Iran-UK tension.
Earlier, the Fed, which will hold its rate-setting meeting on July 30-31, is expected to slash key rates by 50 basis points after Fed Chair Jerome Powell said there is a need to help boost growth of the US economy to counter the impact of the trade tensions.
However, some Fed officials doused cold water on expectations when New York Fed President John Williams said the rate cut-related statements earlier should be considered as an academic exercise instead of policy signal.
Meanwhile, tensions between UK and Iran rose after members of Iran’s coastguard seized a British oil tanker after UK personnel detained an Iranian vessel in Gibraltar.
With these, the peso opened the day at 51.075, weaker than its 51.00 start in the previous session.
It traded between 51.14 and 51.07, resulting to an average of 51.112.
Volume reached USD725.91 million, lower than the USD1.094 billion.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.90 and 51.15 on Tuesday.
On the other hand, the PSEi declined by 0.28 percent, or 23.24 points, to 8,246.83 points.
Most of the counters also ended on the red, with the All Shares down by 0.32 percent, or 16.04 points, to 4,994.67 points.
Property registered the highest drop with 0.86 percent and was followed by the Services and Mining and Oil, 0.60 percent; Financials, 0.08 percent; and Industrial, 0.003 percent.
Volume reached 862.56 million shares amounting to PHP5.99 billion.
Losers led gainers at 103 to 80 while 61 shares were unchanged.
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