PSEi back at 8,000, hits one-month high
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Fri, 22 Mar 2019 16:29:52 +0000
THE stock market returned the 8,000 level on Friday — a one-month high — as investors cheered policy decisions by the US Federal Reserve and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP).
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.74 percent or 58.70 points to finish at 8,013.42. The last time the index settled at the same level was on February 12 when it closed at 8,009.92.
The wider All Shares grew by 0.50 percent or 24.52 points to end at 4,913.31.
P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said trading was particularly driven by the Fed’s having indicated that it would no longer hike interest rates this year given a slowing US economy.
AAA Southeast Equities Inc. President Matthew Cabangon, for his part, said the market gained as both the Fed and the BSP decided to keep rates unchanged as expected.
“This (unchanged Fed rates) is very good news for Philippine assets as international investors are more enticed to enter higher-yielding markets like ours,” Cabangon said.
“With the BSP on hold, there is less pressure on the peso to depreciate and a continuation of the trend of lower inflation should be intact,” he added.
The market also took its cues from overnight gains on Wall Street, where investors shrugged off US slowdown fears that had weighed on Wednesday’s results.
In Asia, most regional markets finished slightly higher.
Tokyo ended 0.1 percent up and Shanghai gained 0.1 percent while Sydney added 0.5 percent. Seoul rose 0.1 percent and Wellington jumped one percent.
Singapore, Taipei and Bangkok were also well up.
But Hong Kong fell 0.3 percent in the afternoon while Mumbai and Jakarta were lower.
The next possible market-moving catalyst could be next week as top US officials head to Beijing on March 28-29 for a new round of trade talks, followed by a trip to Washington by China’s top negotiator in April.
While there is optimism a deal will eventually be struck, Donald Trump caused ripples when he said Wednesday that US tariffs on Chinese imports could remain in place for a “substantial period”, dampening hopes that an agreement would see them lifted soon.
Back in Manila, most sectoral results finished in the green except for mining and oil, which dipped by 0.29 percent.
More than 1.35 billion shares valued at P7.6 billion were traded.
Winners led losers, 116 to 77, while 50 issues remained unchanged.
With a reports from AFP
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