PSEi up ahead of Fed decision; peso stays strong

FILE: The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended its slide after it rose 0.31 percent, or 25.55 points, to 8,359.61 points. (PNA PHOTO)

MANILA — Expectations for a hike in the Federal Reserve’s rate after the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) later in the day led the Philippines main equities index to recover Wednesday as the peso stayed firm on wait-and-see stance.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended its slide after it rose 0.31 percent, or 25.55 points, to 8,359.61 points.

All Shares tracked with a 0.32 percent, or 15.36 points, jump to 4,881.98 points.

Most of the sectors followed, led by the Mining and Oil at 1.40 percent.

Services went up by 1.04 percent, Industrial, 0.78 percent; Financials, 0.27 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.11 percent.

Only the Property ended with losses after it fell 0.28 percent.

Volume for the day reached 1.14 billion shares amounting to PHP6.3 billion.

Gainers led losers 97 to 96 while 43 shares remained unchanged.

The peso ended the day’s trade little changed to a US dollar at 50.48 from 50.51 a day ago.

A trader said investors awaited the Fed decision and decided to stay at the sidelines.

The local unit opened the day at 50.50, weaker than the 50.33 Wednesday on high hopes for an increase in the Fed rates.

The Fed has hiked rates by a total of 100 basis points since December 2015, with the last 25 basis points increase done in June this year.

To date, the Fed funds rate is between one percent and 1.25 percent.

With expectations for a rate hike announcements later in the day, the peso traded between 50.43 and 50.52 Wednesday,resulting to an average of 50.47.

Volume for the day declined to USD576.95 million from the previous session’s USD665.6 million.

The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.30 and 50.50 Thursday. (PNA)