Both the main equities index and the local currency posted gains on Wednesday due partly to the decline of oil prices in the international market to below USD100 per barrel.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.09 percent, or 6.53 points, to 7,026.45 points.
All Shares increased by 0.53 percent, or 19.61 points, to 3,713.68 points.
Most of the sectoral indices followed the main index with Mining and Oil rising by 2.21 percent; Industrial, 1.74 percent; Services, 0.55 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.09 percent.
Property fell 0.95 percent and Financials by 0.41 percent.
Volume reached 1.32 billion shares amounting to PHP7.76 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 119 to 59, while 55 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares staged a rally to close slightly higher on the back of declining oil prices and a lighter than expected February US PPI (producer price index) reading at 0.8 percent m/m (month-on-month),” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
PPI increased by 0.8 percent month-on-month last February, lower than expectations of about 0.9-percent rise and the 1.2-percent increase in the previous month.
On the other hand, the price of Brent crude fell by 6.54 percent to USD99.91 per barrel and the West Texas Intermediate (WTI) by 6.38 percent to USD96.44 per barrel.
“Wall Street is betting that the central bank is going to hike rates for the first time since 2018,” Limlingan said.
The Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is on a meeting from March 15-16 and it is widely expected to start hiking the Federal Reserve’s key rates given the impact of acceleration in consumer price index (CPI), among others.
US’ CPI posted another four-decade high of 7.9 percent in February, the highest after an 8.4-percent rise in January 1982.
Meanwhile, the local currency appreciated against the greenback and finished the day at 52.31 from its 52.415 close a day ago.
It opened the day at 52.375 and traded between 52.375 and 52.2. The average level for the day stood at 52.285.
Volume rose to USD1.05 billion from USD1.01 billion a day ago.
Source: Philippines News Agency
