Peso strengthens, stocks index drops

On Friday, Aug 14, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 0.34 percent to 6,076.91 points while the peso strengthened against the US dollar.

Despite the overall decline in PSEi, All Shares rose by 0.12 percent and Mining and Oil increased by 1.72 percent.

Services and Holding Firms were the only sectors that declined, with Services dropping by 0.98 percent and Holding Firms by 0.69 percent.

Luis Limlingan from Regina Capital Development Corp. attributed the PSEi's performance to new weighting in main stocks and negative sentiments on US stimulus progress.

Jobless claims in the US improved for the first time since March, reaching 963,000, which helped curtail losses.

Starting Aug 17, Emperador Inc. will replace Semirara Mining and Power Corp. in PSEi composition.

The peso closed at 48.765 from 48.84 on Thursday with a total volume of USD599.65 million.