MANILA – Risk-off sentiments again resulted in the negative close of the Philippines main stocks gauge but the peso again finished the day sideways against the US dollar.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 1.65 percent, or 110.4 points, to 6,577.45 points.

All Shares followed with a decline of 1.14 percent, or 40.81 points, to 3,550.40 points.

Most of the sectoral gauges registered losses during the day namely Holding Firms, 2.36 percent; Financials, 1.74 percent; Property, 1.28 percent; Industrial, 1.17 percent; and Services, 0.48 percent.

Only the Mining and Oil gained during the day after it rose by 0.18 percent.

Volume reached 1.54 billion shares amounting to PHP20.2 billion.

Decliners surpassed advancers at 120 to 63 while 54 shares were unchanged.

Philippine shares continued to slide as investors returned to the US after being beaten down last week, Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales, said noting the improvement in Wall Street on Monday.

He said sentiments in the local bourse on Wednesday will be driven partly by results of the US new home sales and the speech of Federal Reserve Chairman Jerome Powell at the National Center for American Indian Enterprise Development summit in Las Vegas, Nevada on May 24.

On the other hand, the peso continued to keep its footing against the US dollar and finished the day at 52.32 from 52.27 on Monday.

It opened the day weaker at 52.32 compared to its 52.22 start in the previous session.

It traded between 52.39 and 52.23, resulting in an average of 52.329.

Volume reached USD1.02 billion, lower than nearly USD1.2 billion a day ago.