MANILA – The Philippine peso ended the week’s first trading day better against the greenback while the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered on the back of positive trade-related news overseas.
The local currency ended Monday at 51.08 from 51.135 Friday last week.
BPI Research attributed the gain to news reports citing the possible signing of a trade deal between the United States and China “if nothing goes wrong” based on current discussions.
Reports said the deal is expected to be signed during the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation Summit in Chile in November.
Latest reports on the Brexit said the European Union is expected to sign off bids for the extension of discussions until Jan. 31, 2020 although there is an option for the United Kingdom to exit the group earlier if a deal is ratified.
The local currency got a boost after it opened at 51.15 from 51.25 in the previous session.
It traded between 51.08 and 51.18, resulting in an average of 51.143.
Volume reached $665.3 million, less than half of the $1.4 billion in the previous session.
The main equities index gained 0.30 percent, or 24.03 points, to 7,946.53 points.
All Shares also ended the day on a positive note after it went up by 0.15 percent, or 7.22 points, to 4,774.25 points.
However, most of the sectors posted contractions during the day, led by the Mining and Oil which fell 0.73 percent.
It was followed by the Property, 0.42 percent; Services, 0.30 percent; and Industrial, 0.22 percent.
Financials rose by 1.60 percent, and Holding Firms, 0.39 percent.
Volume reached 1.36 billion shares amounting to P5.9 billion.
Losers led gainers at 105 to 81, while 65 shares were unchanged.(PNA)
