PH stock market marginally higher

Photo from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock market closed marginally higher on Tuesday as trading volume thinned out due to the Lunar New Year holiday break in key Asian markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 1.92 points or 0.03 percent to close at 6,459.93. The local index trimmed gains from morning trade.

Across the region, trading was mostly firmer led by Japanese stocks, which benefited from a weakening yen (seen to boost export competitiveness) and talks about a prospective Japanese central bank easing.  But many key markets, such as those in China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Taiwan were still on holiday.

At the local market, turnover was thin at about P4.97 billion or about half of daily trades in previous weeks due to the Lunar New Year holiday.