MANILA – Positive sentiments continued to buoy the local bourse on Thursday, and this benefited the local currency as well after it again touched the 50-level against the US dollar.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained by 1.28 percent, or 92.62 points, to 7,307.75 points.
All Shares increased by 1.05 percent, or 40.20 points, to 3,870.11 points.
Mining and Oil posted the highest gain among the sectoral indexes with a jump of 2.24 percent.
It was trailed by the Financials, 1.75 percent; Services, 1.55 percent; Industrial, 1.38 percent; Holding Firms, 0.93 percent; and Property, 0.59 percent.
Volume reached 1.50 billion shares amounting to PHP7.2 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 131 to 60, while 50 shares were unchanged.
“Investors continued to bet on the recovery of the Philippines as the high US CPI (consumer price index) numbers made them return back to the PSEi,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
US CPI rose to 7 percent last year, the highest since June 1982, while core CPI rose 0.5 percentage points month-on-month last December and was above consensus.
Limlingan said gold prices also firmed up “as data showing US inflation was within expectations dented the dollar and prompted buying from investors who seemed to have priced in the Federal Reserve’s likely interest rate hike trajectory.”
Meanwhile, the local currency finished the day at 51.04, an improvement from its 51.19 close a day ago.
It opened the day sideways at 51.08 and traded between 51.225 and 50.99.
The average level for the day stood at 51.115, little changed from its 51.1 level in the previous session.
Volume declined to USD917.25 million from the previous day’s USD1.11 billion. (PNA)
