Philippine stock market declines despite BSP easing

The Philippine stock market declined on Thursday despite a second round of monetary policy easing by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas, with profit-taking and a weak local currency contributing to the downturn.

The PSEi fell by 0.49 percent, closing at 7,400.33 points, while All Shares decreased by 0.52 percent to 4,076.24 points.

Only the Financials sector saw an increase of 0.38 percent, with Holding Firms experiencing the biggest loss at 1.17 percent.

The Philippine peso weakened further to close at 57.80 against the US dollar compared to Wednesday's rate of 57.70.

Volume of trade increased to USD1.47 billion from the previous day's USD1.38 billion.