MANILA – The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped while the peso depreciated on Wednesday following reports of deteriorating manufacturing activities in August.
The PSEi fell 1.01 percent or 69.60 points to 6,785.94.
Local shares also declined by 0.24 percent to 4,215.26, shedding 10.32 points from previous day’s trading.
Only Financials and Mining and Oil counters ended the day in the green territory, gaining by 0.69 percent to 1,437.55 and 0.76 percent to 9,295.23, respectively.
Holding Firms index incurred the largest decrease of 97.26 points, down by 1.41 percent, to 6,778.54.
This was followed by Industrial counter, down by 64.81 points to 9,985.12; Property, down by 52.22 points to 3,042.76; and Services, down by 9.32 points to 1,764.29.
“Here at home, factory activity in the Philippines contracted in August, with the IHS Markit Manufacturing PMI (purchasing managers’ index) reading 46.40 for the period,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.
Meanwhile, the peso went back to 50-level against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday.
The local currency depreciated by PHP0.31 from 49.76 to a dollar on the previous day’s trading.
The currency pair traded between 49.73 and 50.07.
Total volume traded on Wednesday reached USD1.05 billion from USD848.73 million on Tuesday. (PNA)
Source: Philippines News Agency
