MANILA, Sept. 8 (PNA) — The Philippine peso and the local bourse posted improvements Monday partly because of further easing of interest rates in Europe.
The local currency appreciated to P43.54 to a dollar at the end of the week’s first day of trading from P43.66 last Friday.
A trader said domestic fundamentals continue to attract investors following the cut in the European Central Bank’s (ECB) main rates by 10 basis points last week.
The trader cited that although the cut in the ECB rates is positive for the US dollars emerging market economies like the Philippines continue to have a big share in foreign investors’ funds.
Thus, from a P43.69 opening last Friday the peso opened Monday at P43.60.
Its opening level is the unit’s weakest for the day while its closing level is its strongest.
Average for the day stood at P43.56, better than the P43.67 in the previous trading.
Volume of trade reached US$ 546.5 million, slightly lower than last Friday’s US$ 765 million.
The peso is projected to trade between P43.50 and P43.70 Tuesday.
Relatively, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) further rose after ending the trade at the 7,300-level.
This after it went up by 0.71 percent or 51.36 points to 7,314.94 points.
Almost all the sectoral counters tracked the PSEi led by the property, which went up by 1.60 percent or 44.34 points to 2,811.57 points.
Only the industrial index posted a loss after it declined by 0.32 percent or 36.55 points to 11,250.03 points.
Trading remained strong with volume reaching 1.53 billion amounting to P10.13 billion.
On the other hand, losers led gainers at 90 to 95 while 39 were unchanged. (PNA)