MANILA – The local main equities index shed Wednesday but the peso managed to end the trade sideways against the greenback.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 1.57 percent, or 102.46 points, to 6,443.09 points.
All the other counters tracked the main gauge, with All Shares down by 1.05 percent, or 41.57 points, to 3,924.29 points.
Property registered the highest drop among the sectoral indexes after it fell 2.06 percent.
It was trailed by the Financials, 1.82 percent; Holding Firms, 1.24 percent; Services, 1.10 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.97 percent; and Industrial, 0.52 percent.
Volume totaled 2.04 billion shares amounting to PHP6.4 billion.
Losers led gainers at 113 to 97, while 50 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares closed the last trading day of the quarter on the red as shares came under pressure again across the region after the 10-year (US) Treasury yield touched its highest level since January 2020,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales.
Limlingan said investors took precautions ahead of the long holiday and rebalanced their portfolios for window dressing.
Another factor for the day’s trading is the drop in global oil prices after the Suez Canal reopened to traffic on March 29 as a cargo ship ran aground while entering the canal from the Red Sea last March 23.
Meanwhile, the peso finished the trade almost unchanged against the US dollar at 48.53 from its 48.545 close Tuesday.
It opened the day at 48.535 and traded between 48.6 and 48.515.
This brought the day’s average to 48.544.
Volume totaled USD933.19 million from the previous session’s USD770.67 million. (PNA)
