Stocks up, peso weakens

MANILA: The local stock market closed higher on Monday amid expectations that headline inflation eased in August, while the peso closed weaker against the dollar. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 25.87 points to close at 6,923.41 while All Shares slightly went up by 8.60 points to 3,751.41. "The local market rose this Monday by 0.38% to 6,923.41. Expectations that inflation had declined last August compared to July's 4.4% drove market sentiment," Philstocks Financial Research Manager Japhet Tantiangco said. "This comes following the BSP's range forecast for August's inflation which is from 3.2% to 4.0%. Investors also took cues from Wall Street's positive performance in last week's close." Sectors were mixed with the conglomerates rising the most, up by 1.27 percent. Miners were at the bottom declining by 2.28 percent. Advancers edged decliners 105 to 84. Meanwhile, the peso weakened closing at 56.38 to a dollar from last Friday's 56.111 finish. It opened at 56.22 and traded between 56.22 and 56.4. The weighted average for the day was at 56.317. Trading was shortened on Monday following the suspension of government work in the National Capital Region due to Tropical Storm Enteng. In a Facebook post on Monday, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas announced that trading in the US dollar and Philippine peso, as well as monetary operations, would be suspended for the day. Source: Philippines News Agency