PSEi recovers, PHP down still on impact of negative external developments

MANILA—Philippines’ equities and currency markets registered mix results Tuesday as investors continue to weigh on the impact of developments overseas.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered and gained 0.006 percent, or 0.45 points, to 7,588.98 points.

A trader said net foreign selling was still high as foreign investors withdrew some of their placements in the local equities market in lieu of safe haven assets such as those in the US.

The trader, however, pointed out that more investors are still looking at fundamentals, thus, the positive outcome of the main index.

All Shares followed PSEi and rose 0.14 percent, or 6.34 points, to 4,536.84 points.

Most of the sectors, on the other hand, finished on the red led by the Financials with 0.23 percent decline followed by Mining and Oil, 0.14 percent; Services, 0.02 percent; and Industrial, 0.009 percent;

Property, meanwhile, rose 0.22 percent and Holding Firms, 0.15 percent.

Volume for the day reached 1.25 billion shares amounting to Php5.04 billion.

Losers led gainers at 104 to 87 while 49 shares were unchanged.

The peso weakened anew after ending the day at 49.64 from the previous session’s 49.54.

A trader pointed this partly to statements by US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who said that a strong dollar would benefit the US economy in the long run.

Concerns about the US-North Korea rift still has its negative effect on the peso, the trader said.

With these factors in play, the local currency opened on a depreciated level of 49.55 from 49.45 Monday.

It traded between its opening level and 49.65 resulting in an average of 49.60.

Volume of trade remained low at USD339.4 million from the previous day’s USD346.3 million, which a trader traced to the net foreign selling in the local equities market.

The peso is seen to trade between 49.50 and 49.70 Wednesday.