Stock index climbs, peso loses ground vs US dollar

May 22, 2019

Philippine stocks rose on Wednesday as the index reached its highest level in two weeks.

The peso closed lower against the US dollar at P52.53 from Tuesday's P52.475. Volume at the foreign exchange portal of the Bankers Association of the Philippines reached $777.95 million from $1.101 billion on the previous day.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index closed at 7,815.07, up 93.51 points. In the broader market, there were 112 gainers, 78 decliners while 43 shares were unchanged.

Volume reached 850.19 million shares worth P10.14 billion from Tuesday's 750.24 million shares valued at P5,41 billion.

Most active shares were led by Ayala Corp., up 6.47 percent to P905. In a Twitter post by April Lee Tan, head of COL Financial Research, Ayala Corp. bought back 3.8 million shares from Mitsubishi for P838 a share.

''This completes Mitsubishi's portfolio rebalancing with regards to its Ayala Corp. shares as it now owns six percent which is enough for a board seat,'' said Tan.

Other most active shares were Ayala Land, up 0.21 percent to P48 and SM Prime, down 0.25 percent to P39.35. DMS