Both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso finished Monday down partly because of the Martin Luther King (MLK) Jr. holiday in the United States.
Most of the counters in the local bourse closed in the negative territory, with the main index losing 0.52 percent, or 37.51 points, to 7,223.83 points.
All Shares followed with a drop of 0.26 percent, or 10.06 points, to 3,845.24 points.
Majority of the sectoral gauges tracked the main index, with the Financials declining by 0.80 percent; Property, 0.74 percent; Industrial, 0.55 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.31 percent.
On the other hand, the Mining and Oil index rose by 2.30 percent and Services by 0.31 percent.
Volume reached 1.13 billion shares amounting to PHP5.8 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 104 to 78, while 61 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares opened the week on the red, with a lack of catalysts with the US market closed for MLK day later and following the sentiment led by a selloff in tech stocks,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
He traced the selloff in the Nasdaq, which followed a three-day rally, to “rising interest rate worries.”
Meanwhile, the local currency weakened to 51.255 against the US dollar from its 51.11 close last Friday.
It started the week’s first trading session at 51.25 and traded between 51.34 and 51.225.
Average level for the day stood at 51.278.
Volume reached USD820.9 million, higher than the previous session’s USD760.5 million.
Source: Philippines News Agency
