Share prices ended lower Thursday on heightened concerns over the rising coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) cases.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was down 5.88 points to 7,085.52, a 0.08 percent drop.
The broader all shares index was down 16.59 points to 3,777,58, a 0.44 percent drop.
Losers edged gainers 114 to 57 with 59 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P5.21 billion.
The peso closed at 51.18 to the dollar, down from 50.96 on Wednesday.
The currency opened at 51.03, and hit a high of 50.99 and a low of 51.23. Trading turnover reached $1.15 billion.
Most Asian currencies fell on Thursday after minutes from the latest US Federal Reserve meeting indicated the central bank would likely raise interest rates sooner than expected, weighing on riskier assets, Reuters reported
“A risk-based examination of (the) 2022 outlook for EM Asia must inexorably be shaped by hard-to-predict interactions between pandemic, price, policy and geo-political risks,” analysts at Mizuho Bank said in a note.
“As such, EM Asia’s recovery may lag and remain uneven; as China neither provides emphatic tailwind nor erases downside risks.”
Japhet Tantiangco, analyst at Philstocks Financial Inc., noted that intraday, the PSEi “dropped to as low as 7,008.07 as COVID-19 fears weighed on sentiment amid the surge of infections with Wednesday posting 10,775 new cases.”
“The surge of cases raises the possibility of our country being subjected to tighter social restrictions again which would be a drag to our economic recovery. The negative cues from Wall Street brought by the hawkish tone of the Federal Reserve in their latest minutes of the meeting also contributed to the decline,” he said.
“Eventually, a last-minute bargain hunting trimmed the market’s losses,” he added.
Tantiangco, however, noted trading was tepid with turnover “below last year’s daily average of P7.38 billion.”
Most actively traded AC Energy Corp. was down P0.45 to P9.65. SM Investments Corp. was up P17.50 to P947. Security Bank Corp. was down P4 to P109. International Container Terminal Services Inc. was down P4.50 to P193.50. Converge ICT Holdings Inc. was down P0.20 to 31.20. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was down P0.85 to P33.50. Ayala Corp. was up P4.50 to P848. Ayala Land Inc. was up P1.15 to P34.90. Monde Nissin Corp. was up P0.22 to P16.22. JG Summit Holdings Inc. was down P0.20 to P56.30.
