MANILA — The local stock market mirrored the downward trend observed in most Asian indices at the close of this week’s trading session. Despite the red territory in Asian markets, the Philippine peso maintained a sideways movement, hovering around the 55 level.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) experienced a decline of 26.33 points, settling at 6,161.89, while the All Shares index also saw a decrease of 12.52 points, closing at 3,316.86.
Regina Capital Development Corp.’s Head of Sales, Luis Limlingan, noted that Philippine shares succumbed to profit-taking following Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell’s statement expressing the central bank’s lack of confidence in its efforts to combat inflation. Limlingan further mentioned that bond yields rose as stocks fell in response to Powell’s remarks.
Most sectoral indices witnessed declines, except for the Services sector, which saw a slight increase of 6.45 points, reaching 1,496.
The largest declines were recorded in the Mining and Oil sector, down by 52.93 points to 9,693.13, followed by the Industrial sector, down by 36.97 points to 8,642.72. The Property sector decreased by 34.97 points to 2,628.11, Holding Firms dropped by 15.73 points to 5,878, and Financials were down by 8.86 points to 1,764.39.
Meanwhile, the Philippine peso concluded the week with a stable performance, closing at 55.96 against the US dollar, a marginal decrease of 0.07 from the previous day’s closing rate of 55.89. The day started with an opening rate of 56.03, compared to Thursday’s kickoff at 55.92.
The currency pair fluctuated between a low of 55.92 and a high of 56.03, resulting in an average exchange rate of 55.96 for the day. Trade volume decreased to USD 951.7 million from USD 1.33 billion on Thursday.
(ai/mnm)
