Peso leads losses in regional currencies

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Share prices ended higher Monday on bargain hunting. The peso closed down.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was up 38.18 points, a 0.57 percent hike to 6,737.84.

The broader all shares index was up 16.71 points or 0.47 percent to 3,580.87.

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Gainers edged losers 101 to 89 with 48 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P5.49 billion.

The peso closed at 55.825 to the dollar, down from 55.61 on Friday. The currency opened at 55.72, an intraday low, and hit a high of 55.90. Trading turnover reached $896.6 million.

Southeast Asian currencies were pressured on Monday by disappointing activity data from China, with the Indonesian rupiah and the Philippine peso leading losses, while the Thai baht weakened on mixed economic growth data.

The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas is widely expected to continue with its monetary tightening after an outsized 75-basis-point (bp) hike in mid-July, although a similar big move is not expected later this week.

Analysts at ING, DBS, OCBC and Mizuho Bank expect a 50-bp hike to its key overnight borrowing rate to contain inflation, hovering near four-year highs.

“Yet-to-peak and still rising headline inflation… is likely to keep policymakers resolute in their fight to tame increasing price pressures and ensure inflation expectations are not unanchored,” DBS analysts said in a note.

Claire Alviar, analyst at Philstocks Financial Inc., said bullish sentiments continue to persist, leading to the market’s uptick.

“As the market breached and managed to stay above the 6,600 levels, some investors are accumulating at that level, especially those undervalued stocks with good earnings in the first semester,” she said.

Most actively traded SM Investments Corp. was up P17 to P860. Converge ICT Solutions Inc. was down P0.68 to P18.50. Ayala Land Inc. was up P0.60 to P29.10. Semirara Mining and Power Corp. was up P1.50 to P42.55. Globe Telecom Inc. was up P80 to P2,320. Ayala Corp. was up P17 to P750. BDO Unibank Inc. was up P1.70 to P120. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was down P0.35 to P38.10. Jollibee Foods Corp. was up P1.20 to P233.20. Security Bank Corp. was up P0.90 to P87. – Ruelle Castro

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