By Leslie Gatpolintan/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — Local stocks edged higher on Tuesday, mirroring gains in Asian markets, while the peso weakened slightly against the US dollar.
The barometer Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) increased by 36.28 points or 0.47 percent to 7,761.29.
AAA Equities president William Matthew Cabangon said US President Donald Trump’s visit to Japan has helped boost investor sentiment in Asia.
He said Trump and Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe have signalled that the visit would bolster more trade between the two major economies.
“With concerns remaining between US-China trade, this development has allayed some fears in Asian markets. The PSEi’s performance today is in line with our Asian neighbors, which are broadly closing the day higher as well,” he added.
At home, almost all sectoral indices closed in the positive territory, led by property which rose by 1.53 percent.
Financials and holding firms indices declined slightly.
The volume of transactions for the day reached 1.52 billion shares amounting to PHP18.02 billion.
Advancers dominated decliners, 100 to 80, while 53 shares were unchanged.
Meanwhile, the peso weakened slightly against the US dollar at 52.3 Tuesday from previous day’s 52.22 close.
The local currency opened at 52.22 from Monday’s 52.15.
It traded between 52.19 and 52.32, resulting in an average of 52.268.
The total volume reached USD913.8 million from USD633.31 million during the previous session.
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