Foreign selling dampens PSEi, peso

MANILA -- Foreign selling hurt both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso on Wednesday after the main stock gauge tracked Wall Street’s performance overnight.

PSEi ended its three-day rally after shedding 0.18 percent, or 16.14 points, to 8,848.99 points.

The broader All Shares followed with a 0.11 percent, or 5.78 points, decline to 5,121.47 points.

Half of the sectors also finished on the red, namely the Financials, down 1.88 percent; Property, 0.54 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.39 percent.

At the other side are the Services, Holding Firms, and Industrial, which rose by 0.62 percent, 0.54 percent, and 0.36 percent, respectively.

Volume for the day reached 942.72 million shares amounting to PHP9.6 billion.

Losers led gainers at 120 to 92 while 49 stocks were unchanged.

The peso shed P0.215 and closed the day at 50.705, down PHP0.215 from 50.490 Tuesday.

A trader pointed this to risk-off sentiment in the region that resulted in general weakness of currencies and the foreign selling in the PSE.

For the day, the local unit opened at 50.50, a drop from the 50.40 a day ago.

It traded between 50.78 and its opening level, resulting to an average of 50.65.

Volume for the day reached USD930.65 million, up from the USD875.37 million.

The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.50 and 50.70 Thursday. (PNA)