MANILA – Corporate demand was up Tuesday and helped the greenback but the Philippine peso remained strong unlike the main stocks index, which pulled back due to profit-taking.
The local currency finished the day at 49.84 from 49.82 Monday, which a trader traced to investors’ wait and see stance ahead of the consumer confidence report to be released in the US later in the day.
It opened the day at 49.87, weaker than the 49.72 a day ago. The trader pointed this partly to sustained strength of the greenback following the positive growth report from the US for the first quarter of 2017.
It traded between 49.83 and 49.90 resulting to an average of 49.86.
Volume of trade reached USD 409.5 million, higher than the USD 385.8 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 49.70 and 49.90 Wednesday.
On the other hand, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.32 percent, or 25.26 points, to 7,860.77 points after recovering a day ago.
A trader said investors took profit following the index’ rally last week.
Even the All Shares index went down after it ended the day at 4,690.78 points, down 0.20 percent or 9.36 points.
Most of the sectoral indices finished on the red, led by the Property, which declined 0.52 percent.
It was followed by the Mining and Oil, 0.50 percent; Holding Firms, 0.44 percent; Financials, 0.41 percent; and Industrial, 0.34 percent.
Only the Services registered gains after it rose 0.28 percent.
The trader, however, said foreign fund flows to the local bourse remained high compared to foreign selling.
PSE data show that foreign buying during the day reached PHP3.09 billion, higher than the PHP2.52 billion foreign selling.
Volume for the day reached 1.33 billion amounting to PHP7.4 billion.
Losers led gainers at 105 to 77 while 58 shares were unchanged.
