After declining in the past days, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) stabilized, but the peso weakened again against the greenback on Wednesday.
The main equities index rose 2.08 percent to 6,273.34 points, and the broader All Shares by 1.26 percent to 3,731.07 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges followed, with Services posting the biggest increase at 3.97 percent.
It was trailed by the Financials, 3.53 percent; Property, 2.71 percent; Mining and Oil, 2.41 percent; and Industrial, 0.33 percent.
Only the Holding Firms ended the day in the red after it declined by 0.52 percent.
Volume reached 890.27 million shares, amounting to P8.65 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 117 to 100, while 39 shares were unchanged.
“Investors likely viewed yesterday’s prices as a bargain buying opportunity, pushing prices and the market higher together with investors positioning for the upcoming BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) meeting,” Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, said.
BSP’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) will have its fourth rate-setting meeting on Thursday, and it is widely expected to cut key rates for the third time this year due to below-target inflation rate as of last July, which averaged at 1.7 percent, lower than the 2 to 3 percent target band set by economic managers for this year.
Despite this, the peso again depreciated against the US dollar and closed the day at 57.16 from 57.07 a day ago.
It opened the day at a better level of 56.93 compared to its 56.7 start in the previous session.
However, its opening level is the local unit’s strongest for the day after it weakened to 57.23 mid-trade. The average for the day stood at 57.10.
Volume rose to USD1.9 billion from the previous day’s USD1.44 billion.*PNA
