MANILA – Both the Philippines’ main stock index and the peso recovered Tuesday partly on central banks’ stimulus packages.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.65 percent, or 30.90 points, to 4,774.27 points.
All Shares also improved after it rose 0.72 percent, or 20.93 points, to 2,947.95 points.
Property led the gainers after it increased by 3.72 percent and was followed by the Holding Firms, 1.27 percent, and Mining and Oil, 1.26 percent.
Industrial contracted by 3.16 percent and trailed by the Services, 1.01 percent, and Financials, 0.02 percent.
Volume totaled to 565.337 million shares amounting to PHP5.09 billion.
Gainers led losers at 114 to 68, while 31 shares were unchanged.
Regina Capital Managing Director Luis Limlingan attributed the optimism in the local bourse to the Federal Reserve’s announcement that it would buy unlimited amounts of treasuries and mortgage-backed securities (MBS) as part of the quantitative easing to prevent a repeat of the 2008 credit crunch.
He, however, said optimism lessened later in the trading after the US Senate failed to approve a stimulus package aimed to prevent an economic fallout.
On the local front, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) announced a 200-basis-point reduction in the universal and commercial banks’ (U/KBs) reserve requirement ratio (RRR) effective March 30, 2020, to ensure adequate liquidity and boost banks’ lending programs on the back of weaker economic activities as a result of, among other others, the month-long quarantine due to the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic.
“The sudden move is projected to inject an additional PHP200 billion into the economy and provide some cushion to the perceived slowdown,” Limlingan said.
The local currency gained against the US dollar after it closed the trading at 50.9 from the previous day’s 51.33 finish.
It opened the day at 51.2, sideways compared to the 51.15 start in the previous session.
It traded between 51.21 and 50.9, resulting in an average of 51.076.
Volume totaled to USD563.9 million, higher than the USD422.7 million a day ago. (PNA)
