MANILA – Optimism on the United States (US)-China trade meeting in October lifted investors’ sentiment and buoyed both the Philippine stocks and the peso Monday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 0.34 percent, or 26.65 points, to 7,960.12 points.
Regina Capital managing director Luis Limlingan also attributed gains to the positive sentiment on the statement of Federal Reserve chair Jerome Powell to act as needed to help sustain current growth of the world’s largest economy.
But he noted “investors remained hesitant” due to the third straight month of low job creation growth in the US last August, with the figures only at 130,000.
With these factors, counters in the local bourse ended mixed but most mirrored the main gauge.
All Shares gained 0.30 percent, or 14.29 points, to 4,799.31 points.
Financials led the sectors with an increase of 1.08 percent, followed by the Property, 0.55 percent; Services, 0.44 percent; and Industrial, 0.12 percent.
On the other hand, Mining and Oil declined by 1.58 percent and Holding Firms by 0.23 percent.
Volume reached 1.003 billion shares amounting to P7.67 billion.
Losers led gainers at 103 to 91, while 51 shares were unchanged.
Relatively, the peso ended the day at 51.865 from 51.905 Friday last week.
BPI Research traced this to Fed rate cut expectations and the People’s Bank of China’s decision to reduce reserve requirement ratio by 50 basis points from 13.5 percent to 13 percent to stimulate the world’s second largest economy.
The local currency opened the day at 51.88, better than its 51.95 start in the previous session.
It traded between 51.9 and 51.77, resulting in an average of 51.844.
Volume reached USD1.07 billion, lower than the USD1.45 billion at the end of last week.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 51.70 and 52.10 on Tuesday. (PNA)
