PHILIPPINE SHARES closed higher on the penultimate trading day of 2024 amid hopes for another interest cut to start 2025 and as investors picked up bargains.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) inched up by 0.06% or 4.11 points to close at 6,539.02 on Thursday, while the broader all shares index increased by 0.12% or 4.55 points to 3,731.78.

Philippine financial markets were closed on Dec. 24 and 25 for the Christmas holidays.

“The local market managed to close a little above the flat line on the back of last-minute bargain hunting. Hopes of an early 2025 rate cut by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) helped in lifting the market,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Senior Research Analyst Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco said in a Viber message.

BSP Governor Eli M. Remolona, Jr. told Bloomberg last week that the central bank is open to delivering another rate cut at their first review next year. He said the BSP remains in an easing cycle and is “neither more dovish nor less dovish.”

“Adding to this are the strengthening of the local currency and the positive cues from Wall Street,” Mr. Tantiangco said.

On Thursday, the peso jumped by 48 centavos to close at a near three-week high of P57.97 per dollar.

Meanwhile, Asia shares rose slightly in holiday-thinned trade on Thursday, extending gains from earlier in the week with little news or data in the way to alter their direction of travel, Reuters reported.

MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan ticked up 0.04% and was headed for a weekly rise of nearly 2%, taking a cue from its counterparts on Wall Street earlier in the week.

S&P 500 futures edged 0.02% higher, while Nasdaq futures advanced 0.13%.

“The local bourse edged higher as investors positioned themselves ahead of the final trading session of the year,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan added in a Viber message.

Majority of sectoral indices closed higher on Thursday. Property climbed by 0.86% or 20.51 points to 2,388.62; financials went up by 0.4% or 8.82 points to 2,188.68; industrials rose by 0.08% or 7.32 points to 9,158.10; and mining and oil increased by 0.05% or 3.97 points to 7,530.26.

Meanwhile, services inched down by 0.43% or 9 points to 2,086.10 and holding firms retreated by 0.4% or 22.68 points to 5,611.25.

Value turnover shrank to P2.8 billion on Thursday with 445.79 million shares traded from the P4.2 billion with 713.21 million issues exchanged on Monday.

Market breadth was positive as advancers overwhelmed decliners, 122 versus 57, while 53 names closed unchanged.

Net foreign buying dropped to P73.098 million on Thursday from P255.38 million on Monday. — Revin Mikhael D. Ochave with Reuters