Local stocks up, peso sideways as trading week ends

The PSEi further went up to 7,340.18 points, up 0.99 percent or 71.80 points. (Photo: qvist / ShutterStock)

MANILA — The continued softening of world crude prices allowed the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) to finish the week with gains while the peso ended sideways due to consolidation.

The PSEi further went up to 7,340.18 points, up 0.99 percent or 71.80 points.

Aside from the drop in oil prices in the international market, BDO chief strategist Jonathan Ravelas attributed the main index’s positive close to an “improvement in emerging market currencies” due to the weakness of the US dollar.

“This further strengthen the view that inflation could have peaked, thus, causing investors to rush back into the market as valuations remain reasonable,” he said in a reply to a phone message from PNA.

The rate of price increases last October steadied at 6.7 percent but the average to date rose to 5.1 percent from five percent as of end-September.

Ravelas explained that PSEi’s finish this week “signals some room to further test the 7,500 levels in the near-term.”

“Momentum is slowly accelerating and supportive of a bounce,” he said, citing that “a break above 7,500 levels could extend the rally towards the 7,800.”

The main gauge’s finish was followed by all the other counters, with the broader All Shares up by 0.78 percent, or 33.95 points, to 4,409.23 points.

Property registered the highest uptick among the sectors after it rose 2.36 percent and was followed by Mining and Oil, 1.83 percent; Financials, 1.75 percent; Industrial, 0.62 percent; Services, 0.45 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.008 percent.

Volume reached 920.71 million shares amounting to PHP14.77 billion.

Gainers led losers at 108 to 74 while 46 shares were unchanged.

Meanwhile, the peso ended the day at 52.45 from 52.41 Thursday.

“This may be due to consolidation since towards the end of the trading some players looked like they covered their short dollar position,” a trader told PNA in an interview.

The trader said the local currency, which began 2018 at the 49-level to the greenback, has managed to recover a lot from its 54-level weakest point this year.

The peso’s improvement was likewise traced to the oil price decline, expectations that inflation has reached its peak last October at 6.7 percent, and the total of 175 basis points increase in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key policy rates.

“If inflation start to peak and go back to within target levels next year, what economists are seeing is positive real yields and this will attract hot money,” the trader said.

For the day, the peso opened at 52.35 from 52.23 a day ago.

It traded between 52.485 and 52.32, bringing the day’s average to 52.391.

Volume reached USD655.24 million, lower than the USD914.63 million.

The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.20 and 52.50 next week.