PH stocks index slips, peso rises

MANILA – Continued risk-aversion partly due to concerns on the economic impact of the pandemic resulted in the negative close of the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) on Thursday but the peso gained against the greenback.

The main equities index shed 0.37 percent, or 25.37 points, to 6,924.02 points.

All Shares trailed with a drop of 0.13 percent, or 5.5 points, to 4,280.79 points.

Sectoral indexes were mostly up and these were led by the Industrial, with a jump of 0.25 percent.

Other gauges that ended on the positive territory are the Mining and Oil, 0.14 percent; Financials, 0.07 percent; and Property, 0.01 percent.

Meanwhile, Holding Firms slipped by 0.73 percent and Services by 0.67 percent.

Volume totaled 920.41 million shares amounting to PHP4.39 billion.

Losers surpassed gainers at 96 to 94 while 44 shares were unchanged.

“Philippine shares slid following overseas market, with Wall Street retreating for the third straight trading day after the market started downgrading the US growth prospects,” Luis LImlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, said.

On the other hand, the peso strengthened against the US dollar and finished the day at 49.92 from 50.11 on Thursday.
It opened the day at 50.2 and traded between 50.2 and 49.9. The average level for the day stood at 50.05.

Volume totaled USD1.16 billion, higher than the previous session’s USD937.6 million. (PNA)

Agencies