By Joann Villanueva/PNA
MANILA — The Philippine peso closed higher against the greenback Tuesday but the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went the other way as investors remained on wait-and-see mode regarding trade issues overseas.
The local currency finished the day at 52.21 from 52.33 Monday, which a trader attributed partly to anticipations for a better balance of payment (BOP) report from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
Data released by the BSP after trading has closed show a BOP surplus of USD2.7 billion for January 2019 from a USD531 million deficit a year ago.
It traced the surplus to inflows from the national government’s net foreign currency deposits after it issued USD 1.5 billion worth of 10-year global bonds last month.
With optimism on the BOP report, the peso opened the day flat at 52.34 and traded between its closing level and 52.4. This brought the day’s average to 52.313.
Volume reached USD885.6 million, higher than the USD816.3 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.20 and 52.40 Wednesday.
On the other hand, barometer PSEi dropped by 0.97 percent, or 76.83 points, to 7,833.75 points.
All the other counters tracked the main index, with the All Shares down by 0.80 percent, or 38.71 points, to 4,802.89 points.
Property registered the highest decline at 1.57 percent and was followed by the Services, 0.82 percent; Financials, 0.81 percent; Industrial, 0.77 percent; Holding Firms, 0.70 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.17 percent.
Volume reached 2.8 billion shares amounting to PHP8.1 billion.
Losers led gainers at 132 to 84, while 39 shares were unchanged.
