MANILA – The Monetary Board’s decision to cut key rates has continued to provide positive sentiments among traders as the local bourse closed higher on Monday, while the peso bounced back to the 56 level.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), at the start of the week, gained 0.62 percent to 6,889.87, with All Shares also closing 0.41 percent higher at 3,706.45 points.
Four sectors closed in the green territory including Property (+1.55 percent), Mining and Oil (+1.42 percent), Financials (+1.41 percent), and Services (+0.58 percent).
Industrial and Holding Firms were the only counters that posted losses.
“Investors continued to draw optimism from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ recent policy rate cut as well as the prospect of further monetary policy easing moving forward,” said Japhet Tantiangco, Philstocks Financial Inc. senior research analyst.
“The positive spillovers from Wall Street’s performance last Friday driven by growing confidence on the US economy also helped in today’s session,” Tantiangco added.
Despite the gains of the PSEi, decliners outnumbered advancers at 104 to 94, leaving 54 unchanged.
Meanwhile, the Philippine peso closed stronger on Monday at 56.64 to the US dollar from a 57.25 finish last Friday.
The local currency opened the day strong at 57.05 from its last kick-off at 57.12 to a dollar.
The currency pair traded between 56.63 and 57.05, with an average of 56.83 to the greenback.
Trade volume settled at USD1.61 billion higher than last week’s volume amounting to USD1.44 billion. (PNA)