Stock market sustains rally

The local bourse’s main index started the week up amid recent positive economic data releases while the peso ended the day sideways against the United States dollar, according to a report by Philippine News Agency.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 1.13 percent, or 74.53 points, to 6,681.47 points.

All Shares followed with a rise of 0.83 percent, or 28.73 points, to 3,481.17 points.

Most of the sectoral indices also gained during the day, namely; Mining and Oil, 4.21 percent; Services, 3.14 percent; Holding Firms, 1.31 percent; Industrial, 0.44 percent; and Financials, 0.27 percent.

Only the Property index finished the day in the negative territory after it slipped by 0.58 percent.

Volume reached 729.87 million shares amounting to PHP8.68 billion.

Gainers led losers at 112 to 77 while 40 shares were unchanged.

“Philippine shares closed higher as the market continues to test previous resistance as the economic data remains encouraging,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.

For one, hikes in the Federal Reserve’s policy rates are expected to be smaller as hinted in the minutes of the Fed’s meeting earlier this month.

Limlingan also cited the drop in global oil prices by 1.61 percent for the Brent crude to USD83.97 per barrel and by 1.7 percent for the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) to USD76.62 per barrel.

Meanwhile, the local currency ended the day’s trade sideways against the US dollar at 56.64 from 56.67 last Friday.

It opened the day at 56.80 and traded between 56.90 and 56.64. The average for the day stood at 56.796.

Volume declined to USD806.9 million from the USD849 million in the previous session.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corporation (RCBC) chief economist Michael Ricafort traced the peso’s performance partly to the drop in oil futures in the international market in part on continued pandemic-related restrictions being implemented by China.

He said the seasonal jump in remittance flows from overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) ahead of the Christmas holidays also backed the local currency.

Other factors during the day’s foreign currency trading include the jump of the PSEi and the correction in the US dollar.

For Tuesday, Ricafort forecasts the peso to trade between 56.55 to 56.75 to a greenback.