By Kris Crismundo
The stock market reacted positively following the fruitful official working visit of President Ferdinand R. Marcos Jr. to Japan this week, while the peso ended the week sideways.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose Friday by 0.50 percent or 35 points to 6,876.79. All shares also went up by 9.67 points to 3,653.17.
Except for Services, all counters increased their shares led by Industrial, with an increment of 1.10 percent, or 106.84 points, to 9,851.45. Indices of other sectors rose by less than 1%.
Holding firms followed with shares up by 32.39 points to 6,644.65; Mining and Oil, up by 9.08 points to 11,418.11; Financials, up by 6.82 points to 1,831.11; and Property, up by 6.05 points to 2,999.27.
On the other hand, Services index declined by 2.76 points to 1,723.74.
“Investors are quite optimistic that the visit of President BBM (Bongbong Marcos) will be fruitful when he returns over the weekend from his Japan trip,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.
Advancers inched decliners at 93 to 90, with shares of 60 listed firms remained unchanged. Total trades reached PHP5.2 billion.
Meanwhile, peso ended the week on sideways against a US dollar, slightly gaining to 54.43 from 54.45 on Thursday. The peso began trading at 54.65, stronger than last day’s opening of 54.86.
The currency pair traded between a low of 54.40 to a high of 54.70, bringing the average level for the day at 54.54.
Volume of trade was lower on Friday at USD1.25 billion from previous day’s amount of USD1.37 billion. (PNA)