The Philippine peso has further strengthened against the US dollar eveb as the Philippuine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) sustained its slide on Friday partly on the increases in jobs in the US last April.
The peso improved further against the greenback after ending the day at 47.855 from 47.98 a day ago. Its close during the day is better than its 47.93 finish last February 15.
It opened the trade at 47.92 and traded between 47.945 and 47.855. Average level for the day stood at 47.9. Its volume totaled US$985.37 million, higher than the US$978.05 million a day ago.
In the PSE. the main equities index further fell by 0.38% or 24.07 points, to 6,258.71 points. All Shares lost 0.06% or 2.22 points, to 3,877.43 points.
Half of the sectoral indexes gained during the day namely the Mining and Oil, 1.45 percent; Services, 1.33 percent; and Industrial, 0.21 percent.
Property, on the other hand, declined by 0.98%; Holding Firms, 0.68%; and Financials, 0.53%. Volume totaled 2.10 billion shares amounting to P4.66 billion. Losers led gainers at 106 to 104 while 35 shares were unchanged.
Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, Luis Limlingan said the Philippine shares “closed lower as investors focused their attention on the highly anticipated jobs data, while fund managers continued to assess the new set of earnings that came out.”
A report by ADP, a private sector payroll company said 742,000 new jobs were created in the US last April, higher than the 517,000 in March but lower than the expectations of 830,000.