MANILA – Profit taking resulted in the negative close of the main equities index on Thursday but the local currency gained against the US dollar.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.93 percent, or 69.86 points, to 7,432.62 points.
All Shares followed with a drop of 0.68 percent, or 26.84 points, to 3,924.74 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges also finished the day’s trade in the negative territory namely Holding Firms, 1.82 percent; Services, 1.70 percent; and Industrial, 0.61 percent.
On the other hand, Financials moved sideways with a decline of 0.03 percent while Mining and Oil and Property rose by 2.38 percent and 0.75 percent, respectively.
Volume reached 1.31 billion shares amounting to PHP10.5 billion.
Decliners surpassed advancers at 101 to 97, while 55 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares succumbed to profit taking with the release of the latest MSCI (Morgan Stanley Capital International) rebalancing results and ahead of the latest US CPI (consumer price index) data tonight,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
Limlingan said the January 2022 CPI report in the US will be a major factor for the pace of rate adjustments by the Federal Reserve.
“Expectations are for prices to have climbed more than 7 percent, which would mark the steepest jump in around 40 years,” he said.
Meanwhile, the peso improved to a dollar after finishing the trade at 51.235 from its 51.34 close on Wednesday.
Its strength showed early on after opening the day at 51.3 from the previous session’s 51.43.
It traded between 51.32 and 51.21, bringing the day’s average to 51.267.
Volume reached USD937.4 million, lower than the previous day’s USD992.1 million. (PNA)
