MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended Wednesday higher while the peso continued its sideways close against the greenback.
The main equities index inched up by 0.24 percent, or 16.60 points, to 7,082.15 points.
All Shares also finished the day on a positive note after rising by 0.26 percent, or 10.88 points, to 4,260.81 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges tracked the main index, led by the Holding Firms with a jump of 1.39 percent.
Mining and Oil index increased by 1.25 percent, Property by 0.89 percent, and Services by 0.12 percent.
On the other hand, Financials declined by 2.60 percent and Industrial by 0.49 percent.
Volume totaled 27.5 billion shares amounting to PHP11.67 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 130 to 91, while 44 shares were unchanged.
“Local shares closed slightly higher as investors weighed the possible impact of a large stimulus package on inflation as well as Fed’s extended easy policy and others continued to align portfolios with the release of the MSCI rebalancing results and ahead of that of the PSEi,” Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, said.
Investors are also all eyes on the first Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policy meeting this year on Thursday, he said.
Limlingan forecasts BSP’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) to keep key rates steady, citing earlier statements of BSP Governor Benjamin Diokno.
Last year, the MB slashed the central bank’s key policy rates by a total of 200 basis points to help buoy the domestic economy from the impact of the pandemic.
The positive sentiments in the local bourse were mirrored in the currency trading, with the peso ending the trade at 48.038 against the US dollar, sideways from its 48.049 close a day ago.
It opened the day at 48.04 and traded between 48.045 and 48.034. This resulted in an average of 48.04 for the day.
Volume increased to USD897.5 million from USD357.6 million in the previous session. (PNA)
