By Joann Villanueva
Both the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso ended the week on a positive note following reports that the US and China are set to sign the first phase of their trade deal.
Reports said the signing of the pact is expected to roll back existing tariff rates on Chinese products and cancel new taxes scheduled to be implemented on December 15.
A trader said the report resulted in the general risk-on sentiment that reigned over the financial market, with the main equities index finishing the week up by 1.76 percent, or 136.56 points, to 7,877.63 points.
All the other counters tracked the main gauge, with All Shares rising by 1.38 percent, or 63.32 points, to 4,662.07 points.
Property led the sectoral indices in terms of uptick after rising by 2.85 percent.
Services trailed by 1.85 percent, as well as Mining and Oil, 1.39 percent; Industrial, 1.38 percent; Holding Firms, 1.17 percent; and Financials, 0.78 percent.
Volume reached 714.47 million shares amounting to PHP7.5 billion.
Gainers led losers at 123 to 61, while 55 shares were unchanged.
The peso finished the week’s trade at 50.64 against the US dollar from 50.71 the previous day.
It opened the day’s trade at 50.5, way better than the 50.79 start in the previous session. It traded between 50.645 and 50.46, resulting in an average of 50.569.
Volume totaled USD1.33 billion from USD794.1 million in the previous session.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 50.50 and 50.80 on Monday.
(First published in PNA)