The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered 22.08 points or 0.29% to 7,575.84 while the broader all-shares dropped 16.20 points or 0.35% to 4,541.97 amid thin trading.
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Some 35 million shares worth S$85 million were done as at 9.01am, with 66 counters up and 48 down.
Weak recent USA data has boosted bets that the Fed will skip the chance to raise rates at this week’s meeting, but investors will listen closely to Chair Janet Yellen’s speech on Wednesday for any hint that the central bank could hike as soon as December.
“The Fed will not raise interest rates this week, but they will be pretty aggressive in saying a rate increase is coming”, said Bruce Bittles, chief investment strategist at Milwaukee-based Robert W. Baird, which oversees $110 billion. Expectations of the Fed raising rates are low, but the Bank of Japan’s meeting, which is being viewed as a comprehensive review of current monetary policy, will likely drive markets this week. The yield on the 10-year U.S. Treasury note held steady at 1.69 percent. Economic growth has stalled as macro economic conditions have erased the positive results of Abenomics and investors are looking for guidance from central banks but growing more disillusioned after every monetary policy meeting.
Markets are keenly awaiting the decision of the central bank, led by Janet Yellen, on whether the world’s biggest economy is yet ready for another rates hike. The euro rose to $1.1178 from $1.1151.
The Federal Reserve will meet Tuesday and announce its latest decision on interest rates the following day.
Real estate, the index’s newest component, closed up 1%. United Kingdom and European stocks were up more than 1% during mid-morning.
The broad-based S&P 500 finished unchanged, while the tech-rich Nasdaq Composite Index slipped 0.2 percent.
The yen advanced 0.2 percent to ￥102.05 per United States dollar and the euro gained 0.1 percent to US$1.1171.
The New Taiwan dollar jumped 0.8 percent to NT$31.450 against its United States counterpart and the Singaporean dollar rose 0.3 percent to S$1.3637. It had about $1.1 billion in revenue past year.
ArcelorMittal (MT) recently recorded -3.21 percent change and now at $5.43 is 85.32 percent away from its 52-week low and down -24.48 percent versus its peak.
Benchmark US crude added 27 cents to 43.30 US dollars a barrel in NY.
Oil prices rose about 1.3 percent after Venezuela said OPEC and non-OPEC producers were close to a deal to stabilize an oversupplied market. WebMD fell $2.95, or 5.7 percent, to $49.02 and it is down 27 percent since May 25.
General Motors rose 3% after Morgan Stanley upgraded the stock to “overweight”.
Markets ruled out the possibility of a United States rate hike this week following data last week that revealed lacklustre USA retail sales in August and tepid wholesale inflation, hurting the dollar in the process. This was 0.8 percent in July. A technical problem delayed the opening of Australia’s main equities market Monday by about 90 minutes.
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Hong Kong ended 0.9 percent higher as investors returned from a three-day weekend to play catch-up with Friday’s regional rally.
