Philippine markets open with gains, peso weakens

Philippine financial markets opened the year 2025 with positive gains in equities and a slight depreciation of the peso.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) increased by 0.33% to close at 6,550.39, while the All Shares index grew by 0.17% to 3,755.10 on Thursday.

Investors are closely monitoring the release of December's S&P Global Manufacturing PMI, which rose to 54.3 from November's reading and marked the fastest pace since November 2017.

The Philippine peso weakened slightly to close at P57.91:$1 against the US dollar, reversing some gains made during the holiday season due to overseas Filipino worker remittances.

Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.'s chief economist noted that the seasonal increase in OFW remittances had already been factored into the exchange rate after the holiday spending period.