Renewed US-China talks sow confidence in local markets

The PSEi rose by 0.88 percent, or 66.16 points, to 7,583.52 points, which a trader pointed to news reports on the scheduled meeting between US and Chinese officials to thresh out trade issues. (File Photo: Kelvin Servigon/Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)

MANILA — Risk-on sentiment returned to Asia Friday, fuelling the recovery of the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and sustained the firmness of the Peso as the trading week came to a close.

The PSEi rose by 0.88 percent, or 66.16 points, to 7,583.52 points, which a trader pointed to news reports on the scheduled meeting between US and Chinese officials to thresh out trade issues.

Gio Perez of Papa Securities Corp. (PSC), in a note, said PSEi, along with its counterparts in the region, were lifted by the rise in US markets last night. He said Dow Jones rose as much as 400 points following news about a planned meeting between US and Chinese authorities to try to smooth out lingering trade issues later this month.

He, however, said market players “need to remain vigilant” for developments overseas this weekend following reports on Turkey’s currency crisis, which is the main factor for markets’ performance this week.

The rise of the main stocks gauge was mirrored by the All Shares after it increased by 0.46 percent, or 21.29 points, to 4,606.69 points.

Most of the sectors ended the week up, led by the Property, which jumped 1.87 percent. It was followed by Holding Firms, 1.31 percent; Services, 0.90 percent; and Industrial, 0.65 percent.

On the other hand, Financials fell 1.44 percent and Mining and Oil, 0.15 percent. Volume reached 1.2 billion shares amounting to PHP5.54 billion.
Gainers led losers at 98 to 91 while 58 stocks were unchanged.

The Peso ended the week at 53.425 from 53.44 Thursday, which a trader said is in line with the performance of other currencies in the region on news about the US-China talks. The trader said optimism among investors returned since the scheduled meeting might avert a dreaded trade war between the world’s two largest economies.

For the day, the Peso opened at 53.

41 from 53.47 a day ago and traded between 53.455 and 53.37, resulting in an average of 53.414. Volume reached USD581.88 million, down from the USD844.1 million in the previous session.

The currency pair is seen to trade between 53.20 and 53.60 next week.