MANILA – Risk-on sentiments again boosted the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) on Wednesday but the peso depreciated against the US dollar.
The main stock index gained 1.32 percent, or 97.34 points, to 7,458.99 points.
All Shares rose by 0.74 percent, or 28.87 points, to 3,933.07 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges also jumped during the day, led by Property after it increased by 3.02 percent.
It was trailed by Financials, 2.50 percent; Mining and Oil, 1.08 percent; Services, 0.74 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.58.
Only the Industrial index fell during the day after it slipped by 0.17 percent.
“Philippine shares continued their winning streak after Wall Street also stayed in the green for three consecutive days, recalibrating its attention to earnings season,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
However, Limlingan said gold prices in the international market continued to drop “and was set for its worst week since late November as growing expectations of US interest rates hikes pushed the dollar to a multi-month high.”
Oil prices also jumped for the sixth consecutive week “amid concerns of tight supplies as major producers continue their policy of limited output increases amid rising fuel demand.”
Meanwhile, the improvement in the local bourse was not mirrored during the day by the local currency after it finished the trade at 51.045 against the US dollar from 50.95 last Monday.
There was no trading on Tuesday because of the Chinese New Year holiday.
The local unit opened the day at 51.05 and traded between 51.18 and 50.99. This brought the day’s average to 51.102.
Volume totaled USD1.187 billion, higher than the USD980.79 million in the previous session. (PNA)
