The stock market ended Monday in the negative territory ahead of the realignment in the list of companies included in the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) and the peso followed.
The local stock barometer declined by 1.02 percent, or 76.05 points, to 7,380.30 points.
All Shares followed with a drop of 0.87 percent, or 34.33 points, to 3,899.61 points.
Most of the sectoral indices also finished the day in the red namely Holding Firms, 1.87 percent; Property, 1.78 percent; Industrial, 1.21 percent; and Services, 0.20 percent.
On the other hand, Financials rose by 0.90 percent and Mining and Oil by 0.83 percent.
Volume reached 1.13 billion shares amounting to PHP9.21 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 105 to 84, while 51 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales, attributed the negative close of the main index to the new composition of the 30 companies included in the PSEi as well as the Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) rebalancing on Friday.
Other factors include the release of key data in the US this week, such as inflation and consumer sentiment survey.
“Investors back at home will keep a close watch on the release of December unemployment rate on 10 Feb(ruary),” he added.
Meanwhile, the local currency weakened during the day after it closed at 51.37 to a US dollar from 51.14 last Friday.
Its negative finish showed early on after starting the day at 51.25 from 51.00 in the previous session.
It traded between 51.38 and 51.22, resulting in an average of 51.293.
Volume reached USD959.3 million, higher than the USD892.5 million last Friday.
Source: Philippines News Agency
