PSEi Recovers; Peso Ends Week Sideways

Manila (PNA) — The local bourse ended the week with gains on back of positive economic news from the US, while the peso ended sideways to the dollar.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) corrected and went up by 0.83 percent or 59.47 points to 7.263.58 points.

A trader said investors took note of the 1.9 percentage points increase of the United States’ August manufacturing data to 59 percent, the highest since March 2011.

With this development, most of the sectoral indices trailed the main index, led by the property index with 1.79 percent or 48.76 points increase to 2,767.23 points.

Only the services counter ended the week on the red after declining 0.30 percent or 6.85 points to 2,252.64 points.

Trading remained strong, reaching 1.12 million shares amounting to Php 11.4 billion.

Advancers led losers at 111 to 67 while 49 were unchanged.

Relatively, the peso ended the week at Php 43.66 from Php 43.62 a day ago.

It started the trading at Php 43.69, improved to Php 43.63 but dipped to Php 43.71, bringing the day’s average to Php 43.67.

Volume of trade reached USD 765 million, lower than the previous trading’s USD 839.5 million.

A trader said the decision of the European Central Bank (ECB) to cut its main rates by 10 basis points proved to be negative for the peso since it made the US dollar stronger.

Meanwhile, the government reported Friday the domestic inflation rate last August, which is steady at 4.9 percent from last July’s level.

Average for the year stood at 4.4 percent, still within the government’s 3.0 to 5.0 percent target for the year.

The trader said report on last August’s inflation rate did not factor in the day’s currency trading since it was below market consensus of five percent.

For next week, the peso is projected to trade between Php 43.50 and Php 43.80 next week. (PNA) SCS/JS/UTB