The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) surged back to the 6.200-point territory on September 17 on hopes of a further reduction in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key rates.
The local bourse’s main index rose 1.01 percent to 6,210.66 points, and the All Shares barometer was up slightly by 0.60 percent to 3,728.61 points.
It was on August 27 this year that the main index closed at above 6,200 points or at 6,273.34.
Meanwhile, the trading on September 17 saw all the sectoral gauges tracking the main index, led by the Services, which rose 1.90 percent.
Mining and Oil followed with a jump of 1.47 percent, along with the Financials, 1.02 percent; Holding Firms, 0.88 percent; Property, 0.26 percent; and Industrial, 0.16 percent.
Volume reached nearly 7.5 billion shares, amounting to PHP10.01 billion.
Advancers led decliners at 104 to 83, while 59 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlinan, Regina Capital Development Corporation head of sales, in a commentary, said the “market looks already positioning ahead of the (US) Fed’s (Federal Reserve) decision, with sentiment also shaped by Finance Secretary (Ralph) Recto’s recent remarks suggesting the BSP may cut rates if the Fed does.”
“With inflation still within the target range, a Fed cut could be a key trigger for the BSP to ease further later this year,” he said.
The Fed’s policy-making Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) is expected to announce a cut after its two-day meeting ending Sept. 17.
The rate of price increases averaged at 1.7 percent in the first eight months this year, within the central bank’s 2 to 3 percent target band for this year.
This, even as inflation posted an uptick to 1.5 percent last August from month-ago 0.9 percent, the lowest after the 0.6 percent in October 2019.
The manageable domestic inflation rate gave the central bank leeway to cut rates for a total of 75 basis points as of last August, to 5 percent for the target reverse repurchase rate, the lowest since November 2022.