Stocks up on bargain hunting; pandemic concerns hurt peso

MANILA – Bargain hunting boosted the local stock barometer on Monday but the peso weakened partly on concerns about the rising coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases due to the Delta variant.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 3.06 percent, or 193.49 points, to 6,513.68 points.

All Shares increased by 1.92 percent, or 76.22 points, to 4,053.16 points.

Most of the sectoral indexes also gained during the day, led by the Holding Firms with a jump of 4.42 percent.

It was trailed by the Property index, 2.92 percent; Industrial, 2.91 percent; Services, 2.78 percent; and Financials, 0.28 percent.

Only the Mining and Oil index shed during the day after it fell 0.95 percent.

Volume reached 1.82 billion shares amounting to PHP8.65 billion.

Gainers led losers at 101 to 98, while 41 shares were unchanged.

“Investors became bargain hunters today following the sell-off from the PSEi rebalancing last Friday. Many are taking cues from the last earnings releases set to be released, while others are tracking the cases of Covid-19 locally and regionally,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales.

Meanwhile, the local currency finished weaker against the US dollar at 50.645 from 50.481 last Friday.

It opened the day at 50.45 and traded between 50.66 and 50.43.

The average level for the day stood at 50.532.

Total volume amounted to USD967.5 million, higher than the previous session’s USD651.17 million.