Peso gains further; PSEi resumes decline

THE peso shrugged off news of a fresh banking crisis on Thursday but the stock market fell on contagion fears.

The currency strengthened by 9 centavos to P54.86 against dollar, while the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 61.9 points or nearly 1 percent to close at 6,404.91.

The broader All Shares lost 34.70 points and settled at 3,443.82.

“Investors were worried as the current issues in the banking sector may further worsen or other sectors may get affected negatively by these,” said Claire Alviar, research associate at Philstocks Financial Inc.

Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis Limlingan said the “Philippine shares resumed their drop on fears of a widespread banking crisis, as the statement from Credit Suisse’s largest investor, the Saudi National Bank, said it couldn’t provide additional funding for the bank which, in turn, sparked the sell-off.”

“Fortunately, the indices managed to trim their losses following the announcement from a Swiss regulator saying that the Swiss National Bank would provide additional liquidity to Credit Suisse if needed.”

The peso opened at P55.01:$1 and ranged from P54.85 to P55.09. Volume reached $799 million, lower than the $899 million in the previous session.

At the stock market, all sectoral indices closed in the red with financial down the most by 1.7 percent, resuming a decline that began after two US banks collapsed within 48 hours last week.

Decliners overwhelmed advancers, 145 to 41, while 42 remained unchanged.