Manila: Bargain-hunting ended the seven-day slide of the local bourse’s main index Wednesday, and the peso sustained its sideways close against the US dollar. The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) returned to the 6,000-level after jumping 1.22 percent to 6,026.03 points, and the All Shares followed after expanding 0.93 percent to 3,654.62 points.

According to Philippines News Agency, all the sectoral gauges posted improvements, led by the Mining and Oil after it rose 3.19 percent. It was trailed by the Services sector with a 1.92 percent increase, Industrial at 1.19 percent, Property at 1.08 percent, Financials at 0.94 percent, and Holding Firms at 0.61 percent. Volume reached 2.46 billion, amounting to nearly PHP6.8 billion, with advancers leading decliners at 99 to 87, while 50 shares remained unchanged.

Investors took advantage of the opportunity to accumulate stocks at cheaper levels following the sharp declines over the past week. Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, noted that the market still requires stronger catalysts for a sustainable reversal of the prevailing downtrend.

The peso maintained its sideways movement against the US dollar, finishing the day’s trade at 58.12 from its 58.19 close a day ago. It began the day at 58.4, which was also the unit’s weakest for the day, from Tuesday’s 58.05. The peso strengthened to as much as 58.08 mid-trade, resulting in an average of 58.22. The volume increased to USD1.72 billion from USD1.69 billion on Tuesday.