By Joann Santiago
MANILA, Dec. 3 (PNA) — The Philippine peso ended Thursday sideways to a US dollar while the local bourse finished on the red, both partly due to Federal Reserve Chairman Janet Yellen’s speech wherein she hinted a possible rate hike this month.
The local unit ended the trade at 47.15 from Thursday’s 47.10.
A trader said some market participants are hoping for a hike after the meeting of the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) on Dec. 15-16 and Yellen’s speech only increased optimism.
The local unit opened the day at 47.20, little changed from the 47.16 a day ago.
It traded between its opening level and 47.09 resulting in an average of 47.15.
Volume of trade reached USD 553.85 million, a tad higher than the previous session’s USD 535.6 million.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 47.10 and 47.30 Friday.
Meanwhile, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.75 percent, or 52.98 points during the trade and finished the day at 6,994.10 points.
All the other indices followed suit, led by the industrial with 1.22 percent or 135.62 points to 10,993.85 points.
Total volume reached 5.16 billion shares amounting to Php 6.37 billion.
Losers led gainers at 94 to 61 while 52 were unchanged. (PNA)