Share prices ended higher Tuesday on bargain hunting.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was up 41.63 points to 7,037.74, a 0.6 percent hike.
The broader all shares index was up 18.96 points to 3,742.92, a 0.51 percent hike.
Gainers edged losers 102 to 83 with 46 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P5.2 billion.
The peso closed at 52.46 to the dollar, down from 52.27 on Monday.
The unit opened at 52.35 and hit a high of 52.31 and a low of 52.48. Trading turnover reached $1.09 billion.
Emerging Asian currencies eased against the greenback, which rose to a fresh two-year high overnight on the prospect of aggressive Federal Reserve monetary policy tightening.
Singapore’s dollar slipped 0.2 percent.
Investors digested hawkish comments from St. Louis Federal Reserve Bank President James Bullard on the pace of US rate rises and the World Bank’s cut in global growth projections due to the impact of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Against the background of aggressive Fed tightening expectations, Morgan Stanley analysts expect central banks in Asia “will need to calibrate their policy stance for the state of the recovery”.
Japhet Tantiangco, analyst at Philstocks Financial Inc., said investors appreciated the February overseas Filipinos’ cash remittance data which posted a growth of 1.3 percent.
“The continuous improvement in our COVID-19 situation with new cases from April 11 to 17, 2022 at 1,674, down 12 percent week-on-week as per the Department of Health, also helped in lifting sentiment,” he said.
Most actively traded Converge ICT Solutions Inc. was up P0.45 to P30.60. SM Investments Corp. was up P6.50 to P871.50. PLDT Inc. was up P7 to P1,8990 BDO Unibank Inc. was up P0.40 to P129.80. International Container Terminal Services Inc. was up P1.20 to P224.80.
CTS Global Equity Group Inc. was down P0.10 to P0.98. Globe Telecom Inc. was up P0.48 to P2,472. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was up P0.10 to P37.25. Ayala Corp. was up P0.10 to P769. Nickel Asia Corp. was up P0.42 to P8.17.