MANILA – Drop in foreign direct investment (FDI) net inflows as of August this year negatively affected Wednesday’s trading in the local bourse, and the peso weakened against the U.S. dollar.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.40 percent to 5,693.20 points, and the broader All Shares by 0.11 percent to 3,200.62 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges also finished on the red, namely the Services, down by 1.98 percent; Mining and Oil, 1.52 percent; Holding Firms, 0.33 percent; and Financials, 0.10 percent.
On the other hand, Industrial rose by 1.47 percent and Property by 0.75 percent.
Volume of trade reached 939.4 million shares amounting to PHP6.1 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 85 to 81 while 65 shares were unchanged.
Data released by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) on Tuesday showed that FDI net inflows as of last August went down to USD4.8 billion against year-ago’s USD5.9 billion, traced primarily to lower net investment in debt papers.
Philstocks Research said the report affected sentiments in the equities market.
“Meanwhile, higher-than-anticipated US inflation data, coupled with the peso’s weakness during the session, added further pressure on the local bourse,” it added, referring to the 0.4 percent jump in the rate of price increases in the U.S., higher than 0.3 percent market expectations.
The local currency also weakened against the U.S. dollar, ending the day at 63.12 from improving to 62.91 in the previous session.
It opened the day on a depreciated level of 63.15, from day-ago’s 63.1, and traded between 63.12 and 63.29. Average for the day stood at 63.19.
Volume reached USD1.42 billion, lower than the USD1.83 billion a day ago. (Joann Santiago-Villanueva/PNA)
