Share prices ended up Thursday amid optimism after the government opted not to impose stricter quarantine rules in the National Capital Region for the first half of August.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was up 23.5 points to 6,496.53, a 0.36 percent hike.
The broader all shares index was up 31.94 points to 4,042.03, a 0.8 percent hike.
Gainers edged losers 109 to 70 with 54 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P4.82 billion.
The peso closed at 50.305 to the dollar, up from 50.37 on Wednesday. It opened at 5.30, hitting a high of 50.27 and a low of 50.39. Trading turnover reached $993.8 million.
Most emerging Asian currencies strengthened on Thursday against a weaker dollar, which was weighed down by the US Federal Reserve’s signal that rate hikes and stimulus tapering aren’t on the radar in the near future, Reuters reported.
SB Equities Inc. said Philippine shares nudged higher on Thursday “after the government announced that the National Capital Region (NCR) and neighboring provinces (NCR-Plus) would remain under general community quarantine (GCQ) with heightened restrictions until August 15, alleviating fears of another hard lockdown that some had publicly called for as a pre-emptive measure to stem the spread of the Delta variant.”
“As further domestic corporate earnings were digested alongside the Federal Reserve’s dovish stance that they were still ‘some ways away’ from the need to start tapering, the PSEi recovered from early selling pressure to trade the bulk of the session in green,” it added.
Most actively traded AC Energy Corp. was up P0.37 to P8.17. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was down P0.60 to P32.80. Ayala Land Inc. was up P1.10 to P35.15. Monde Nissin Corp. was up P0.38 to P15.26. LT Group Inc. was up P0.28 to P9.78. JG Summit Holdings Inc. was up P0.50 to P58. BDO Unibank Inc. was up P2 to P106.20. — Ruelle Castro
