PSEi hits 7,900 on lower inflation projection
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Tue, 30 Apr 2019 16:20:44 +0000
LOCAL equities climbed to the 7,900 level on Tuesday as investors bought on expectations that inflation would likely ease further, coupled with month-end window-dressing.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) grew by 0.71 percent or 55.70 points to close at 7,952.72, while the wider All Shares increased by 0.52 percent or 25.17 points to finish at 4,889.56.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said market players loaded portfolios on expectations that consumer prices in April likely eased anew.
On Tuesday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) Department of Economic Research put inflation to as low as 2.7 percent, but as high as 3.5 percent, as higher domestic oil prices and electricity rates may have provided an upward pressure to prices, but may have been offset by the drop in rice prices. This compares with March’s 3.3 percent.
Limlingan said he expected inflation to have settled at 2.9 percent. Official figures will be announced by the Philippine Statistics Authority on May 7.
In a separate comment, P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said the market grew as investors bought due to month-end window-dressing.
The local market tracked a rally on Wall Street, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq up 0.04 percent, 0.11 percent and 0.19 percent, respectively.
In the region, Shanghai grew 0.52 percent, Jakarta inched up 0.15 percent, and Bangkok rose 0.18 percent.
Meanwhile, Hong Kong fell 0.71 percent, Seoul dropped 0.58 percent, Singapore slipped 0.12 percent. Tokyo is on a long holiday break.
In Manila, only the mining and oil and financials sectors registered losses, down 0.52 percent and 0.02 percent, respectively.
Volume turnover stood at 943 million valued at P7 billion.
Winners led losers, 99 to 89, while 49 issues remained unchanged.
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