MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) on Friday closed in the negative territory as investors took gains ahead of the long weekend and uncertainties over policy rate cut, while the peso ended sideways against the US dollar.
"The local bourse dropped by 7.13 points (0.11 percent) to 6,383.70 as investors took more gains, while others chose to stay on the sidelines ahead of the long weekend," Philstocks Assistant Research Manager Claire Alviar said.
"Uncertainty over the direction of the Philippine interest rates in the near term provided negative sentiment, following remarks of Finance Secretary Ralph Recto that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) may only ease monetary policy after the Federal Reserve makes the first cut. This could mean that the current high interest rates may stay longer than anticipated."
Sectors were mostly down with the Mining having the biggest loss and dropping by 1.19 percent.
Banks and Properties, however, managed to post gains, and went up by 0.58 percent and 0.33 percent, respectively.
Decliners led advancers at 94 to 84, while 54 shares were unchanged.
Meanwhile, the peso closed sideways at 58.65 to the US dollar from the previous day’s 58.58.
It opened at 56.65 and traded between 58.56 and 58.69.
The weighted average rate stood at 58.63.
Volume trade fell to USD1.07 billion from USD1.31 billion. (PNA)
The Philippine News Agency is a web-based newswire service of the Philippine government under the supervision of the News and Information Bureau (NIB) of the Presidential Communications Office (PCO).