The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended sideways Thursday partly on a slower December 2021 domestic inflation rate, while the peso weakened against the greenback.
The main stocks index slipped by 0.08 percent, or 5.88 points, to 7,085.52 points.
This was the theme for most of the counters, with All Shares down by 0.44 percent, or 16.59 points, to 3,777.58 points.
Services registered the biggest drop among the sectoral indexes after it fell by 1.36 percent.
Trailing behind were Mining and Oil, 1.02 percent; Industrial, 0.91 percent; Financials, 0.70 percent; and Property, 0.04 percent.
Only the Holding Firms index gained during the day after rising by 0.93 percent.
Total volume was thin at 771.81 million shares, amounting to PHP5.21 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 114 to 57, while 59 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares traded lower for most of the session before being bought up at close as investors continued to welcome the deceleration in inflation, while other investors digested the recently published minutes from the Fed’s (Federal Reserve) meeting that revealed the central bank discussed a possible run-off shortly after implementing rate hikes later this year,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. (RCDC) head of sales.
The domestic inflation rate slowed for the fourth consecutive month in December to 3.6 percent from the previous month’s 4.2 percent.
However, the average inflation last year was above the government’s 2 percent to 4 percent target band after it stood at 4.5 percent.
Meanwhile, the local currency depreciated to 51.18 against the US dollar from its previous finish of 50.96.
It opened the day at 51.03 and traded between 51.23 and 50.99, averaging at 51.131.
Volume declined to USD1.15 billion from the previous day’s USD1.21 billion.
Source: Philippines News Agency
