By Joann Santiago
MANILA, Aug 26 (PNA) — Uncertainty on when the Federal Reserve will hike its key rates buoyed the Philippine peso and the local bourse Tuesday, a late start for the week due to the commemoration of the National Heroes’ Day Monday.
The local unit ended the week’s first day of trading at 43.77, sideways from the 43.83 Friday last week.
”It moved in line with other Asian currencies as investors became bullish on currencies other than the dollar on expectations that the low-interest rate situation in the US will stay for some time,” a trader told PNA in an interview.
The local currency opened the day at 43.83, sideways but a tad weaker than the 43.80 in the previous trading.
Its opening for the day is the local unit’s weakest for the day while strongest reached 43.75.
This brought the day’s average at 43.79, almost unchanged from the 43.80 at the end of last week.
Volume of trade reached USD 546.5 million, way lower than the USD 964.9 million previously.
For Wednesday, the peso is expected to trade between 43.80 and 44.00.
Relatively, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.19 percent or 13.26 points to 7,146.35 points.
Half of the indices tracked the main index led by the services with 1.13 percent or 25.09 points to 2,244.05 points.
The other gainers are the mining and oil and property.
On the other hand, the financials led the losers with 0.36 percent or 5.89 points to 1,641.70 points. This was accompanied by the industrial and holding firms.
Volume of trade is thick at 1.48 billion amounting to P10.27 billion.
Losers led gainers at 93 to 76 while 49 were unchanged. (PNA)