MANILA – Seasonal inflows of remittances from overseas Filipinos buoyed the Philippine peso on Thursday, but concerns on the impact of a United States legislation, supporting Hong Kong pro-democracy protesters resulted to the dip in the main equities index.
The local currency ended the day at 50.705 from 50.8 at the close during the previous day, which a trader attributed to inflows from overseas Filipino workers during the holidays.
It opened the day at 50.82, little changed from the 50.84 start in the previous session, and traded between 50.87 and 50.7, resulting to an average of 50.798.
Volume rose to $1.05 billion compared to the $858.25 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.70 and 50.90 on Friday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 0.87 percent, or 68.23 points, to 7,768.66 points.
All Shares tracked the main gauge after it declined by 0.73 percent, or 34.05 points, to 4,650.95 points.
Most of the sector gauges also ended with losses, with Mining and Oil index registering the highest decline at 2.87 percent.
Holding Firms lost 1.15 percent; Financials, 1.04 percent; Industrial, 1.00 percent; and Property, 0.57 percent.
Only the Services index gained during the day after rising 0.28 percent.
Volume reached 668.52 million shares amounting to P5.44 billion.
Losers led gainers at 116 to 64, while 52 shares were unchanged. (PNA)
