Business and Economy
PSEi surges anew; peso slides vs USD
The main equities index ended the day at 8,398.04 points, up by 0.37 percent or 30.66 points.
The broader All Shares gauge tracked the main index after it rose 0.26 percent, or 12.79 points, to 4,922.71 points.
Half of the sectors also posted gains during the day namely the Financials, 0.76 percent; Holding Firms, 0.74 percent; and Services, 0.05 percent.
On the other hand, Mining and Oil shed 1.23 percent, Property by 0.25 percent, and Industrial, 0.04 percent.
Volume totalled to 1.63 billion shares amounting to PHP7.2 billion.
Losers led gainers at 103 to 91 while 51 shares were unchanged.
On the other hand, the local currency shed 19.5 centavos and finished the day at 51.44 from 51.245 Monday.
It opened the day flat at 51.200 and traded between a wide range of 51.16 and 51.46, resulting an average of 51.308.
Volume for the day increased to USD929.3 million from USD657.8 million in the previous session.
ING Bank Manila senior economist Joey Cuyegkeng, in a research note, said the peso’s weakness was due to acquisition-related inflows last September and the positive import demand for the US dollar.
“Relatively dovish comment from the central bank in the wake of an acceleration of inflation in September also allowed for some weakness,” he said, referring to the uptick of headline inflation in the ninth month this year to 3.4 percent from 3.1 percent in the previous month.
As of last September, average inflation rate in the country stood at 3.1 percent, still slightly above the mid-point of the government’s two to four percent target for the year until 2019.
This is, however, lower than the 3.2 percent projection of the central bank for the three-year period.
