PSEi rises as the BSP cut its key rate
MANILA, Philippines — Investors bought up shares ahead of the Monetary Board’s decision to cut the policy rate by 25 basis points. This prompted the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) to end in the green.
The benchmark PSEi rose by 0.31 percent, or 19.58 points, to close at 6,357.01.
Meanwhile, the broader All-Shares index inched up 0.17 percent, or 6.39 points, to settle at 3,779.18.
“Philippine shares closed moderately higher ahead of the BSP (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas) decision and right after the Fed held rates steady,” said Luis Limlingan. He is head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp.
Following the BSP’s policy rate cut, the overnight borrowing rate stood at 5.25 percent.
READ: Asian stocks drop after Fed warning, oil dips with Mideast in focus
All the subsectors were in the green except for services and mining and oil indices. These fell by 0.26 percent and 1.12 percent, respectively. The financial sector was the biggest winner with 1.09-percent uptick.
Over 983 million shares valued at P4.43 billion were traded. Winners led losers, 90-91, while 57 issues were unchanged.
The most actively traded shares were that of Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which rose by 0.18 percent to P5.61 each.
READ: Why interest rates are of interest
This was followed by DigiPlus Interactive Corp., down 0.5 percent to P60.30; Bank of the Philippine Islands, up 1.55 percent to P137.60; BDO Unibank Inc., up 1.24 percent to P154.90; Manila Water Co., up 1.04 percent to P38.80; and PLDT Inc., down 0.49 percent to P1,221.
Other active names were GT Capital Holdings, up 1.77 percent to P574; SM Investments Corp., flat at P865; Globe Telecom Inc., down 0.91 percent to P1,737; and Jollibee Foods Corp., up 0.35 percent to P277.60.
/rwd
