Stocks index recovers, peso weakens

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) managed to recover on Tuesday but the peso weakened against the US dollar partly on news about the further contraction of Singapore’s economy in the second quarter.

The main equities index barely rose after ending the day at 6,172.81 points, up by 0.004 percent or 0.24 points.

However, All Shares declined by 0.22 percent, or 7.90 points, to 3,625.85 points.

Most of the sectoral gauges also ended the day in the red, led by the Mining and Oil, which fell 2.29 percent.

The Industrial counter contracted by 1.81 percent, Services by 1.01 percent, and Financials by 0.91 percent.

Property rose by 1.93 percent and Holding Firms by 0.06 percent.

Volume totaled 5.80 billion shares amounting to PHP5.13 billion.

Losers led gainers at 126 to 87, while 29 shares were unchanged.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort said the main equities index’s close during the day was affected by the “increase in US-China tensions/geopolitical risks after the US denounced as unlawful China’s territorial claims in South China Sea (US not taking sides before in the territorial dispute).”

“Weaker-than-expected economic/GDP (gross domestic product) data in Singapore (recession) also caused some profit-taking in some regional markets. Stock markets in China also corrected lower after hefty gains recently,” Ricafort said.

Advanced estimates from the Singapore Ministry of Trade and Industry (MTI) indicate that Singapore’s economy contracted by 12.6 percent in the second quarter of the year, the second consecutive negative output as a result of measures implemented to address the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.

He forecast the PSEi’s immediate support on Wednesday to be at the 6,150 to 6,160 levels.

The factors that affected the PSEi also contributed to the peso’s weakness on Wednesday.

Meanwhile, the peso ended the day’s trade at 49.545 to a US dollar from the previous session’s 49.45.

It opened the day at 49.52, sideways from its 49.455 start, trading between 49.58 and 49.505 and resulting in an average of 49.544.

Volume totaled USD793.7 million, higher than the previous day’s USD667.15 million.

Ricafort said that despite the peso’s weakness during the day, its closing level after the trade was “still among the strongest levels in three years.”

He projected the local unit to trade between 49.45 and 49.65 to the greenback on Wednesday.

Ricafort said the local financial market could still rely on support from the news about the record-low interest rates and the possible development of a vaccine against Covid-19.

“Some pick up/improvement in various economic data from the worst levels at the height of the lockdowns in April 2020 – May 2020 as more economies around the world further re-open as lockdowns are relaxed could still provide some support/resilience in the local financial markets, somewhat offsetting concerns about the spike in new Covid-19 cases locally and in some countries as a result of the further re-opening of the economies from lockdowns,” he added.