Manila: Bargain hunting has lifted local shares after a three-day stay in the red territory, while the Philippine peso closed sideways on Wednesday's trading. The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rebounded to 6,330.46 points, up by 0.49 percent, while All Shares slipped by 0.25 percent to the 3,678.80 level.

According to Philippines News Agency, the market's rise was supported by Fitch Solutions' BMI's economic growth projection of 6.3 percent for the Philippines in 2025. Philstock Financials research manager Japhet Tantiangco noted that the report of local vehicle assemblers, which indicated that car sales in the Philippines hit an all-time high in 2024 at 467,252 units, increasing by 8.7 percent from 429,807 units sold in 2023, also boosted investor sentiment during the trading.

Sectoral indices showed mixed results, with gainers Property and Services ending their counters 2.03 percent and 0.94 percent higher, respectively. The day's losers included Holding Firms, with shares down by 0.50 percent; Mining and Oil, down by 0.39 percent; and Financials, down by 0.10 percent. Despite the overall gains in the local bourse, decliners still outpaced winners at 100 to 88, leaving 44 counters unchanged.

Meanwhile, the Philippine peso finished sideways at 58.58 to the US dollar from its 58.62 close against the dollar on Tuesday. Peso-dollar trading opened the day at 58.65 before trading between a low of 58.58 and a high of 58.70. The average level for the day stood at 58.66 to the greenback. Volume of trade decreased to USD1.37 billion on Wednesday from the previous day's volume of USD1.42 billion.