MANILA – Both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso weakened Thursday after the release of the lower-than-expected growth of the Philippine economy in the first quarter of 2019 and negative developments in US-China trade talks.
PSEi fell 2.16 percent, or 171.07 points, to 7,755.62 points.
BPI Research, in a report, attributed this to the weaker-than-expected 5.6 percent growth, as measured by gross domestic product (GDP), of the domestic economy in the first quarter of the year.
Authorities blamed the delay in the approval of this year’s national budget, which hampered the implementation of some of the government’s infrastructure projects.
Risk-off sentiments were also up on news quoting US President Donald Trump as saying that China “broke the deal” and that the second largest economy “will be paying” after its officials did not commit to initially agreed policies.
With these, all the other counters in the local bourse ended on the red, with the All Shares down by 1.42 percent, or 69.13 points, to 4,807.85 points.
Financials led the sectors after it fell 2.81 percent. It was followed by the Holding Firms, 2.70 percent; Mining and Oil, 1.37 percent; Property, 1.34 percent; Industrial, 1.29 percent; and Services. 0.46 percent.
Volume reached 663.77 million shares amounting to PHP9.2 billion.
Losers led gainers at 109 to 88 while 43 shares were unchanged.
Relatively, the peso ended the day at 52.30 to the greenback from 52.11 a day ago.
It opened at 52.2, weaker that its 52.00 start in the previous session.
It traded between 52.35 and 52.145, resulting to an average of 52.248.
Volume remained high at USD1.04 billion from USD1.01 billion a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 52.20 and 52.40 Friday. (PNA)
