BONIFACIO GLOBAL CITY, Taguig – The local bourse snapped its tenth day of losing streak on bargain hunting and higher gross domestic product (GDP) growth forecast for the Philippines this year, while the peso continued to trade at the 57-level.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) on April 18 gained 45.07 points, or 0.70 percent higher, to close at 6,450.04.

The following day, the negative sentiment of investors amid the heightened geopolitical tension in the Middle East pulled down both the local stock market and the currency.

“The local bourse dropped by 80.19 points (1.23 percent) to 6,443.00 as tensions in the Middle East heightened following Israel’s attack against Iran,” Philstock Financials, Inc. assistant research manager Claire Alviar said in a PNA report.

“This resulted [in a] negative sentiment, forcing investors to sell some shares ahead of the weekend to avoid any uncertainties,” Alviar added.

All shares also declined by 34.77 points, or 1.01 percent, to 3,421.55.

Only the Mining and Oil counter closed in the green territory, gaining 1.15 percent to 8,222.62.

The rest of the sectoral indices closed in the red, with the biggest drop coming from shares of Property declining by 2.55 percent to 2,418.23.

“Among the index members, only five stocks were able to post gain this session, with Emperador, Inc. increased the most, up by 1.61 percent. Meanwhile, DMCI Holdings, Inc. plunged the most by 8.2 percent following its ex-dividend date,” Alviar said.

Losers outnumbered gainers at 134 to 58, with 43 firms left unchanged.

Net market value turnover on Friday stood at P4.83 billion.

Meanwhile, the Philippine peso further weakened on Friday, losing 0.46 to 57.65 to a US dollar from the previous Friday’s close of 57.19.

It opened the day weak at 57.35 from Thursday’s start of 57.15.

The currency pair traded between 57.32 and 56.67, bringing the average level for the day to 57.54 to the greenback.

Trade volume on Friday bounced back to USD1.85 billion from the previous day’s volume of US$1.8 billion. (PNA)