PSEi rises on lower unemployment; peso ends nearly flat

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) bounced back on Wednesday as a robust August labor report fueled a wave of investor optimism, while the local peso held its ground to close sideways against the greenback.

After several days of losses, the local bourse’s main index took a breather, rising 1.05 percent to 5,736.69 points, while the broader All Shares index gained 0.67 percent to finish at 3,191.99 points.

Mining and Oil led the sectoral gauges with a 1.63 percent jump, followed by Holding Firms (up 1.44 percent), Financials and Property (both up 1.31 percent), and Services (up 0.54 percent).

Industrial was the lone sector to finish in the red, slipping by 0.32 percent.

Market volume reached 513.23 million shares valued at PHP 4.94 billion.

Despite the main index's gains, decliners outnumbered advancers 100 to 80, while 68 shares remained unchanged.

Regina Capital Development Corporation Head of Sales Luis Limlingan attributed the PSEi's rally to a sharp turnaround in investor sentiment following the government's report about the lower unemployment rate last August.

“The stronger labor market data helped lift investor confidence and support a broader market rebound,” he said.

Data released by the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) on Wednesday showed that the labor force participation rate rose to 64 percent in August, up from 63.6 percent the previous month.

Meanwhile, the employment rate improved to 94.7 percent, matching last year's figure and beating the 94 percent recorded in July.

Consequently, the unemployment rate dropped to 5.3 percent from July's 6 percent, though it remained higher than the 3.9 percent logged during the same period last year.

The local currency closed almost unchanged at PHP62.75 against the U.S. dollar on Wednesday, ticking up slightly from its PHP62.77 finish the previous day.

The peso began the session at PHP62.65, opening weaker compared to Tuesday's PHP62.55 start.

Throughout the day, the local unit traded between PHP62.65 and PHP62.84, bringing the daily average to PHP62.76.

Volume reached USD1.21 billion, down from the USD1.49 billion recorded a day ago.