Philippine stocks rebounded strongly on Wednesday, but the peso weakened against the US dollar as investors anticipate a 25-basis-point interest rate cut on Thursday.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index surged by 128.10 points, or 2.09 percent, to close at 6,273.34, while the wider all-shares index jumped 46.52 points, or 1.26 percent, to 3,731.07.
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The peso declined to 57.16 against the US dollar Wednesday from 57.07 Tuesday.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the local stock index almost recovered all of the previous day’s decline after US equities gained and reach near record high on better-than-expected US consumer confidence.
Ricafort said the market also went up before the expected 25-basis-point rate cut by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.
Investors also ignored US President Donald Trump’s fresh tariff threats versus countries with digital taxes.
Analysts said investors looked for bargains after the market’s sharp decline Tuesday.
Most sectoral indices ended in the green, led by services which advanced 3.97 percent and financials which rose 3.53 percent. Only the holding firms closed in the negative territory, losing 0.52 percent.
Value turnover was strong at P7.97 billion. Market breadth was positivem with 117 gainers versus 100 decliners.
Port operator International Container Terminal Services Inc. was the day’s top gainer, rising 7.02 percent to P485. Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. slipped 3.04 percent to P29.80.
Meanwhile, Asian markets diverged Wednesday following broad losses the previous day, as attention turns from political pressure on the US central bank to a key earnings report by AI giant Nvidia.
Tuesday’s declines in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Seoul and across the continent were followed by modest gains on Wall Street as investors tried to look past US President Donald Trump’s move to oust a Federal Reserve governor.
In Europe, shares fell and the Paris stock market tumbled over fears that France’s minority government could be toppled, after Prime Minister Bayrou proposed a confidence vote to break an impasse over his proposed budget cuts.
During Wednesday trading in Asia, Tokyo, Seoul and Sydney finished slightly up, while Taipei jumped 0.9 percent.
Hong Kong lost 1.3 percent on the day and Shanghai plunged 1.8 percent.
Shanghai’s slide came despite the surging share price for Cambricon—a leading Chinese chipmaker and local Nvidia competitor — on the heels of a record first-half profit posted Tuesday.
Nvidia will report second-quarter financial results on Wednesday, closely watched as a bellwether for the industry as worries about a tech bubble rise.
“The company has outgrown the tech sector and become the market’s lodestar,” wrote Stephen Innes of SPI Asset Management in a note.
“Analysts expect revenue to soar 53 percent to $46 billion, but this is about more than revenue beats,” he said. With AFP
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