By Joann Santiago
MANILA, Sept. 30 (PNA) — Investors’ decision to take profit enabled the Philippine peso to recover despite breaching the Php45-level to a dollar mid-trade and the local bourse to post gains Tuesday.
The local currency ended the day at Php44.87, better than the Php44.99 finish Monday.
BDO chief strategist Jonathan Ravelas attributed the peso’s appreciation to profit-taking since it has been generally weak in recent days.
The local unit started the day at Php45.00, a drop from the Php44.90 a day ago.
Its strongest level for the day stood at Php44.78 while weakest is at Php45.04.
This brought the day’s average to Php44.88, weaker than the Php44.96 in the previous trading.
Volume of trade slightly rose to US$ 849.5 million from the US$ 624.05 million Monday.
For Wednesday, the peso is seen to trade between Php44.80 and Php45.00.
Relatively, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went up by 0.24 percent or 17.71 points to 7,283.07 points.
The industrial index led the gainers with 1.27 percent or 146.80 points to 11,718.83 points.
It was accompanied by the financials, and property along with the all shares index.
On the other hand, the mining and oil contracted by 2.49 percent or 437.25 points to 17,127.26 points.
The holding firms and services indices also ended the day with losses.
Trading was strong with volume reaching 4.28 billion amounting to Php12.43 billion.
Losers led gainers at 102 to 84 while 43 where unchanged.
Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital, in an e-mail to the Philippines News Agency, attributed the main index rise to classic case of third quarter window dressing.
”Many of the funds were shifting through positions to clean their books in order for their NAVs (net asset values) to look more presentable in their YTD (year-to-date) performances,” he said.
Limlingan said the indices that ended the day on the red “were probably more directly tied to staggering worldwide commodity prices, lighter regional demand and further speculation to the overall strength of the neighboring economies which we export to.”
He said a capital flight to US is possible if the world’s largest economy further gain grounds.
”Of course today, we were not that dramatically impacted because our economic fundamentals are still very much intact. However, that remains to be seen in the coming days as more economic data (ISM manufacturing, jobless claims, employment, etc) from the US will give better indication as to when the Fed (Federal Reserve) rate will finally be raised,” he said.
He projects further rise of the main index noting that the 7,240-level key support has not been threatened. (PNA)