PSEi rallies for 3rd straight day, peso ends up almost flat

MANILA – The local stock barometer rallied for three straight days while the peso closed sideways, but better than the previous day’s trading.

All counters in the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) summary closed in the positive territory, with the overall index rising 98.53 points (1.50 percent) to 6,647.80. All Shares also rose by 1.01 percent to 3,608.24.

“Investors took positive cues from Wall Street overnight amid easing recession worries due to the lower-than-expected weekly jobless claims data,” Philstock Financials, Inc. research associate Claire Alviar said.

“The Philippines’ robust Q2 GDP (second-quarter gross domestic product) data also continued to give sentiment a boost,” she added.

All sectors improved their shares with biggest gains coming from the Mining and Oil counter, up by 2.50 percent, followed by Holding Firms (2.20 percent), Property (1.72 percent), Financials (1.37 percent), Services (0.66 percent) and Industrial (0.40 percent).

Winners led losers at 104 to 82, leaving 53 unchanged.

Meanwhile, the peso closed almost unchanged at 57.28 to the US dollar from last day’s 57.32.

The local currency started the day strong at 57.45 from Thursday’s kickoff at 57.68 to a dollar.

The exchange rate ranged between 57.19 and 57.45, bringing the average rate for the day at 57.31 to the greenback.

The volume of trade decreased to USD1.5 billion from USD1.61 billion. (PNA)