The local stock market slipped 0.71 percent yesterday in sync with regional markets that also posted declines.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 49.43 points to settle at 6,943.
The stock market was covered in red, led by the services index which fell 1.29 percent.
Asian equities fell across the board as market sentiment remained fragile after a mixed Wall Street session, with Singapore shares down 1.3 percent, and Malaysia and Philippine stocks around 0.6 percent lower.
“Philippine shares fell along with the other regional markets with concern that maybe the best of the economic recovery from the pandemic is behind us,” said Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital Development Corp..
The rest of the sectors posted declines of less than one percent: mining and oil, 0.98 percent; holding firms, 0.76 percent; financials, 0.64 percent; industrial, 0.55 percent; and property, 0.48 percent.
Wednesday’s total value turnover was at P4.46 billion.
Market breadth, however, stayed negative as decliners beat advancers, 127 to 59, while 57 stocks were unchanged.
The peso closed at 49.79 to the dollar, slipping from 49.5 on Tuesday.
The currency opened at 49.7, an intra-day low and hit a high of 49,91. Volume turnover amounted to $937.9 million.
Asian currencies eased on Wednesday as investors cut risk ahead of the release of the US Federal Reserve’s June meeting minutes, while the won hit a two-week low on expectations of tighter COVID-19 curbs in South Korea.
The Thai baht, Indonesian rupiah and the Malaysian ringgit slipped between 0.1 percent and 0.3 percent as investors waited to parse through Fed minutes due later on Wednesday to look for details on a timeline of tapering its asset buying program and rate hikes that the central bank flagged at its meeting in June.
A resultant rise in US yields and the dollar would diminish appeal for emerging markets assets, a prospect that has kept Asian currencies on the back foot since the Fed meeting.– Angela Celis with Reuters
