SIDEWAYS. The Philippines' main equities index and the peso ended the week sideways, buoyed by the report about another slowdown in domestic inflation rate last April. Rate of price increases decelerated for the third consecutive month to 6.6 percent due partly to slower annual jumps in the prices of several food items. (PNA file photo)
MANILA – Deceleration of domestic inflation rate for the third month in a row last April countered investors' banking sector-related concerns and resulted to the sideways close of both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso on Friday.
The Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported earlier in the day another slowdown of inflation rate to 6.6 percent from last March's 7.6 percent.
This brought the average inflation in the first four months of the year to 7.9 percent, which, however, remains above the government’s 2-4 percent target band.
The sustained slowdown in the rate of price increases in the country allowed the PSEi to end the week at 6,685.66 points, up by 0.02 percent or 1.31 points.
Also, All Shares went up by 0.07 percent, or 2.42 points, to 3,556.06 points.
Most of the sectoral indices also gained during the day, namely Holding Firms, 0.52 percent; Industrial, 0.35 percent; Property, 0.07 percent; and Services, 0.06 percent.
On the other hand, Financials went down by 1.07 percent and Mining and Oil by 0.79 percent.
Volume reached 2.51 billion shares amounting to PHP11.45 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 103 to 95 while 42 shares were unchanged.
"Philippine shares continued to outperform its regional peers again as better-than-expected April inflation outweighed the fears rekindled from regional bank space concerns," Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales, said.
He said investors also digested the latest 25 basis points increase in the Federal Reserve’s key rates.
Similarly, oil prices "settled nearly unchanged on Thursday after the European Central Bank decided to slow the pace of interest rate hikes, with prices still down more than 9 percent for the week on demand concerns in major consuming countries."
Brent crude oil futures rose by 0.24 percent to USD72.50 per barrel and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) declined by 0.06 percent to USD68.56 per barrel.
Relatively, the peso ended the day sideways against the greenback at 55.3 from Thursday's 55.35.
It opened the day at 55.38, weaker than its 55.2 start in the previous day.
It traded between 55.42 and 55.16, resulting to an average of 55.292.
Volume reached USD1.29 billion, lower than the previous session’s USD1.37 billion.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort said that aside from the impact of slower inflation on investors' sentiments he said enhancement on the central bank’s US dollar hedging facility eased pressures on the foreign exchange spot market and benefited the peso.
He said measures to stabilize the peso ha also stabilized import costs and the inflation rate.
For next week, the currency pair is seen to trade between 55.00-55.50, while the forecast for Monday is between 55.20-55.40. (PNA)
