MANILA, July 2 (PNA) — Both the Philippine peso and the local bourse posted improvements Tuesday on back of the report about US manufacturing sector’s expansion last June.
The peso ended at P43.58, sideways from the P43.61 a day ago.
”It moved in line with the other currencies in the region on general optimism due to better manufacturing reports overseas,” a trader told PNA in an interview.
For one, the US manufacturing sector rose to its fastest in more than four years last June when the Manufacturing Purchasing Managers Index (PMI) grew 57.3. A reading of above 50 shows growth in the sector.
The peso opened flat at P43.60 and traded between a wide range of P43.66 and P43.56.
This brought the day’s average to P43.61, sideways from the P43.59 a day ago.
Volume of trade reached US$ 781.3 million, slightly up from the US$ 732.25 million in the previous trading.
The improvement of the manufacturing sector of the US made the peso and other Asian currencies appreciate because of better investors sentiment.
Asian countries continue to diversify in terms of the destination of their exports but the US and Europe remains a main destination of Asian exports, the trader said.
For Thursday, the peso is projected to trade between P43.40 and P43.70.
Relatively, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.35 percent or 23.99 points to 6,850.60 points.
Another trader traced this to the same manufacturing report in the US among others.
Most of the sub-indices tracked the PSEi led by the financials, which rose 0.74 percent or 12.06 points to 1,646.09 points.
Only the property index ended the day on the red after losing 0.49 percent or 12.79 points to 2,589.35 points.
Volume of trade reached 3.2 billion amounting to P7 billion.
Gainers led losers although at a very little difference at 95 to 93 while 40 were unchanged. (PNA)