MANILA -- Both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the Peso ended in the green Thursday following the hikes in the US Federal Reserve and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates during the day.
PSEi recovered from a two-day slide after it rose by 0.72 percent, or 52.38 points, to 7,320.59 points.
A trader attributed this to the 25 basis point increase in the Federal Reserve’s key policy rates to between 2 percent and 2.25 percent, and anticipations for a hike of as much as 50 basis points in the BSP key rates.
True enough, less than an hour after the closing bell, the BSP announced that its policy-making Monetary Board (MB) decided to increase key rates by another 50 basis points to 4.5 percent for the reverse repurchase (RRP) rates after noting the “sustained and broadening price pressures.”
This, as inflation as of end-August this year stood at 4.8 percent, above the 2 percent to 4 percent target band for 2018-2020.
Last August alone, the rate of price increases rose to 6.4 percent from month-ago’s 5.7 percent due to continued supply-side pressures.
To date, the BSP’s key rates have been raised by a total of 150 basis points.
The positive close of the main index was mirrored by the broader All Shares, which ended the day at 4,483.81 points, up by 0.52 percent or 23.34 points.
However, the sectoral indices registered mixed results with Property up by 1.32 percent, Holding Firms by 1.19 percent, and Services by 0.29 percent.
On the other hand, Industrial declined by 0.59 percent, Financials by 0.04 percent, and Mining and Oil by 0.003 percent.
Volume reached 667.52 million shares amounting to PHP5.05 billion.
Losers continue to surpass gainers at 101 to 85 while 45 shares were unchanged.
The Peso finished the day at 54.23, up from 54.325 a day ago.
A trader said the local currency’s performance during the day was in line with its peers in the region and also reflected the anticipation of another hike in the BSP rates.
For the day, the unit opened at 54.275, little changed from the 54.29 in the previous session, and traded between 54.295 and 54.19, resulting in an average of 54.251.
Volume reached USD727.37 million, up from the USD623.4 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 54.20 and 54.40 on Friday. (PNA)
