PSEi resumes trading up, peso stays firm amid concerns

PSEi gained 1.76 percent, or 131.73 points, to 7,632.26 points, which a trader pointed partly to bargain hunting. (Shutterstock photo)

MANILA — The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) resumed trading on Wednesday on a positive note and the Peso ended sideways to the greenback.

PSEi gained 1.76 percent, or 131.73 points, to 7,632.26 points, which a trader pointed partly to bargain hunting.

The main index also mirrored Wall Street’s performance Tuesday, the trader said.

All shares increased by 1.17 percent, or 53.48 points, to 4,623.61 points.

The sectors also finished with gains, led by Industrial, 2.63 percent; Property, 1.88 percent; Holding Firms, 1.77 percent; Mining and Oil, 1.32 percent; Services, 0.81 percent; and Financials, 0.15 percent.

Volume for the day reached 1.645 billion shares, amounting to PHP6.5 billion.

It was a balance between the advancers and decliners at 103 each while 36 stocks were unchanged.

On Wednesday, the government reported improvements of revenues and expenditures and the increase of budget gap as of last July.

For July alone, revenues rose by 24 percent year on year and expenditures by 34 percent. These resulted in the 71-percent rise of budget deficit.

As of end-July 2018, revenues rose 21 percent to PHP1.652 trillion and spending by 23 percent to PHP1.93 trillion. Deficit to date rose 36 percent to PHP279.4 billion.

Philstocks Financial Research and Client Engagement head Justino Calaycay told the Philippine News Agency (PNA) that these figures are not expected to have a big part in lifting local stocks further since the issue that investors are currently looking at is primarily external factors, such as the situation in Turkey.

He said Turkey’s problem is not a simple one since “aside from politics, (it) borrows from challenges on its current account deficit, among other things.”

He said the rise in the main equities index during the day is a welcome development even with the “decent value flows.”

“Investors have kept their eyes open for bargains with expectations magnified by solid performances by overseas markets overnight. Again, the question begs — is this sustainable?” he said.

Asked for his forecast on whether this uptick in the PSEi is sustainable, Calaycay said, ”Touch and go still.”

With concerns on developments overseas still a big contributor to the local financial market, the Peso ended the day at 53.425 from 53.38 last Monday.

There was no trading Tuesday since it was a holiday because of the Muslim feast Eid’l Adha or the Feast of Sacrifice and Ninoy Aquino Day.

Another trader said investors also took note of reports on the latest issues that US President Donald Trump are facing — the conviction for tax and bank fraud of his election campaign chair Paul Manafort, and the admission by the President’s personal lawyer, Michael Cohen, of violations of campaign finance laws.

With more concerns coming up, investors decided to stay on the sidelines, the trader said.

The Peso opened the day at 53.36 from 53.38 in the previous session, trading between 53.35 and 53.44, and resulting in an average of 53.395.

Volume reached USD385.15 million, lower than the USD424.35 million last Monday.

The currency pair is seen to trade between 35.30 and 35.50 Thursday.