PH stocks and the peso weaken as Ukraine-Russia conflict heightens

MANILA – Escalation of the Ukraine-Russia conflict resulted in the negative close of both the main stocks gauge and the peso on Monday. 

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.73 percent, or 53.94 points, to 7,288.07 points. 

All Shares also declined by 0.73 percent, or 28.54 points, to 3,866.98 points. 

Most of the sectoral indices also finished the day in the negative territory namely Industrial, 2.44 percent; Financials, 1.08 percent; Holding Firms, 0.72 percent; Services, 0.18 percent; and Property, 0.14 percent. 

Only Mining and Oil rose during the day with a jump of 6.54 percent. 

Volume reached 2.35 billion shares amounting to PHP8.73 billion. 

Decliners led advancers at 147 to 66, while 34 shares were unchanged. 

“Philippine shares dropped as the Russia-Ukraine conflict sparked nuclear fears,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.

Limlingan said reports about Russia’s invasion of Ukraine overshadowed positive US employment data. 

Last week, the US reported an increase of 678,000 jobs for February and a drop-in unemployment rate to 3.8 percent from 4 percent. 

Meanwhile, the peso weakened to 52.18 from its 51.74 close last Friday. 

It opened the day at 51.9, a depreciation from its 51.65 start in the previous session. 

It traded between 52.19 and 51.85, resulting in an average of 52.061.  

Volume reached USD1.58 billion, nearly double the USD793.22 million last Friday. (PNA)

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