Peso holds ground, local stocks shed anew

The local unit finished the week’s first trading day at 53.53 from last Friday’s 53.51 close. (Shutterstock photo)

MANILA — The Philippine peso finished almost unchanged against the US dollar Monday but the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) tracked the slide of its regional peers.

The local unit finished the week’s first trading day at 53.53 from last Friday’s 53.51 close.

A trader pointed this performance partly to corporates’ higher demand for dollar to finance their mid-month requirements.

For the day, the peso opened at 53.50, slightly weaker than its previous start of 53.43.

It traded between its opening level and 53.54, bringing the day’s average at 53.52.

Volume was thin at USD290.75 million from the previous session’s USD397 million.

The same trader expects the local unit to trade between 53.30-53.50 to a greenback Tuesday.

On the other hand, PSEi shed 0.40 percent, or 29.74 points, to 7,369.44 points in line with other stock markets in the region.

Another trader said foreign investors pulled out some of their placements in the domestic equities market given some worries overseas.

The main index was followed by most of the other counters, with the All Shares down by 0.27 percent, or 12.29 points, to 4,462.60 points.

Holding Firms, Property, Mining and Oil, Services and Financials were on the same trend after giving up 0.76 percent, 0.66 percent, 0.62 percent, 0.19 percent and 0.11 percent, respectively.

Only the Industrial index registered improvement after it rose 0.22 percent.

Volume reached 919.84 shares amounting to Php4.28 billion.

Losers led gainers at 90 to 82 while 55 shares were unchanged.