Manila: Investors stayed at the sidelines Monday ahead of the earnings season, resulting in the drop in the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), and the peso weakened against the U.S. dollar.

According to Philippines News Agency, both the main equities and the broader indices shed 0.09 percent to 6,084.07 points for the PSEi and 3,661.92 points for the All Shares. Most of the sectoral gauges also finished in the red, led by the Mining and Oil sector, which slipped 2.54 percent. It was followed by the Services sector, dropping 0.61 percent; Financials, 0.56 percent; and Holding Firms, 0.11 percent. On the other hand, the Property sector rose by 0.55 percent, and the Industrial sector by 0.28 percent.

Volume reached 1.86 billion shares amounting to PHP3.65 billion, with decliners leading advancers at 122 to 75 while 50 shares remained unchanged. Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corporation, noted that the PSEi went down 'as the market remained cautious ahead of the earnings season.' However, some buying pressure emerged early in the trading day as uncertainty from the US eased after President Donald Trump signaled a possible tariff cut ahead of his meeting with Chinese President Xi Jinping during the APEC Summit in South Korea later this month.

Relatively, the local currency finished the trade at 58.17 against the U.S. dollar from its 58.16 close on Friday last week. Its weakness was evident early as the local unit opened the day at 58.19 from 58.02 in the previous session. It traded between 58.19 and 58.06, bringing the day's average to 58.13. Volume reached USD1.13 billion from USD1.43 billion at the end of the last week.