The main equities index finished the week’s first trading day higher on hopes for continued deceleration of US inflation rate but the peso weakened against the US dollar.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.57 percent, or 38.18 points, to 6,737.84 points.

All Shares followed with a jump of 0.47 percent, or 16.71 points, to 3,580.87 points.

Most of the sectoral indices tracked the main index namely Holding Firms, 1.69 percent; Mining and Oil, 1.09 percent; Financials, 0.42 percent; and Property, 0.36 percent.

On the other hand, Services fell by 0.67 percent and Industrial by 0.01 percent.

Volume reached 1.03 billion shares amounting to PHP5.5 billion.

Advancers led decliners at 101 to 89, while 48 shares were unchanged.

“Following the US rally on Friday, Philippine shares rose once again, starting another positive week as investors celebrated signs that inflation may be peaking,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.

This, after the US reported the slowdown in its consumer price index (CPI) to 8.5 percent last July from 9.1 percent last June, the highest since November 1981.

On the other hand, the local currency weakened against the US dollar and finished the day at 55.825 from 55.61 last Friday.

It opened the day at 55.72, a depreciation compared to its 55.48 start in the previous session.

It traded between 55.9 and 55.72, resulting in an average of 55.843.

Volume slipped to USD896.6 million from USD1.02 billion previously.

Economists partly traced this to expectations for another increase in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates during the rate-setting meeting of the central bank’s policy-making Monetary Board (MB) on Thursday. (PNA)