MANILA -- International Monetary Fund’s (IMF) positive outlook on the Philippine economy buoyed both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso Wednesday.
PSEi rose for the second day in a row, with the day’s uptick at 0.90 percent, or 66.98 points, to 7,514.00 points.
A trader cited the IMF’s announcement during the day about its 6.7 percent growth projection for the country for this and next year as a plus for local equities.
IMF’s 2018-19 growth forecast for the country this year and next year is the same as economy’s 2017 output but lower than the government’s seven to eight percent target for 2018-22.
The trader said IMF’s growth projection for the country assured investors that the domestic economy remains strong amid rising risks coming from inflation as a result of increase in the prices of oil and commodities and of domestic demand.
With domestic prospects still up, most of the other counters also ended the day with gains.
The broader All Shares went up by 0.67 percent, or 30.30 points, to 4,535.53 points.
Sectoral indices were led by the Financials, 2.38 percent; and was followed by the Services, 1.12 percent; Holding Firms, 1.03 percent; and Property, 0.58 percent.
On the other hand, Mining and Oil fell 0.74 percent and Industrial by 0.43 percent.
Volume reached 1.4 billion shares amounting to Php6.9 billion.
Gainers led losers at 125 to 72 while 46 shares were unchanged.
At the same time, the peso finished the day at 53.37 from day-ago’s 53.42.
It opened the day at 53.32, way better than the previous session’s 53.54.
Its opening level is the local unit’s strongest for the day while weakest is 53.43 resulting to an average of 53.38.
Volume for the day reached USD557.1 million, down from USD668.1 a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 53.30 and 53.50 Thursday. (PNA)
