PHL peso ends sideways, stocks fall for 7 straight sessions

The peso finished Friday at 48.40 against the greenback, slightly up by 0.07 from the previous day’s 48.47.

MANILA – The Philippine peso ended its last day of trading for the month of October sideways against the US dollar while the local bourse fell for seven straight sessions.

The peso finished Friday at 48.40 against the greenback, slightly up by 0.07 from the previous day’s 48.47.

It kicked off the day weaker at 48.56 from Thursday’s opening at 48.70 to the dollar.

During Friday’s trading, the local currency strengthened to 47.40 but was dragged to 48.58, bringing the average trading level to 48.48.

Volume of trade increased to USD491 million from USD473.3 million in the previous day’s trading.

Meanwhile, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed Friday lower for seven straight sessions.

The PSEi declined by 0.54 percent or 40.32 points to 7,404.80 points.

The All Shares index fell 0.47 percent or 20.72 points to 4,398.58 points.

Except for holding firms which had slight improvement of 0.01 percent, all sectoral indices finished in the red, led by Financials which dropped 1.23 percent; Property, down 1.08 percent; Mining and Oil, declined 1.06 percent; Services, fell 0.98 percent; and Industrial, slipped 0.21 percent.

Trade volume reached 1.67 billion valued at PHP9.09 billion.

Losers outpaced gainers at 117 to 66 while 44 were unchanged.