MANILA, Philippines —Investors’ disappointment on recent slide of US’ initial jobless report fueled both the improvement of the Philippine peso and the main stocks gauge Friday.
The local currency finished the week at 50.16 from Thursday’s 50.27, which a trader partly attributed to the slid of initial jobless claims in the US for the week ending July 28 to 240,000 from week-ago’s 245,000.
This boosted risk-on sentiment in the local equities market, which was also buoyed for positive earnings report of listed companies.
For the day, the peso opened at 50.20, an improvement from the 50.38 a day ago.
It traded between 50.23 and 50.14, resulting in an average of 50.18.
Volume for the day amounted to USD631.3 million, higher compared to the USD503.5 million in the previous session.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.10 and 50.40 next week.
Encouraging earnings report of companies listed with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) boosted the main index, which rose for the second consecutive day after profit-taking ended its strong rise last week.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) finished the week’s last trading day at 7,932.82 points, up 0.71 percent or 56.16 points.
The broader All Shares index followed with a 0.42 percent, or 19.81 points, to 4,734.38 points.
Most of the sectors also increased, led by the Industrial with 1.21 percent, the only index that rose more than one percent for the day.
Other gainers were Holding Firms, 0.77 percent; Property, 0.52 percent; Financials, 0.20 percent; and Services, 0.06 percent.
Only the Mining and Oil index shed for the day after it fell 0.10 percent.
Total volume for the day reached 945.09 million shares amounting to PHP6.36 billion.
Losers led gainers at 101 to 93 while 50 stocks were unchanged. (Joann Santiago/PNA)
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