Share prices and the local currency ended lower yesterday as investors took on a risk-averse stance after a series of negative news coming from both local and international fronts rocked the markets.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was down by 39.25 points to close at 7,815.93, a 0.5 percent drop. The broader all shares index was down 23.39 points to 4,657.81, a 0.5 percent drop.
Losers edged gainers 122 to 58 with 47 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P7.72 billion.
The peso, meanwhile, closed at P51.02 to the dollar. This is 0.069 centavos lower from Thursday’s close of P50.951.
The local currency opened lower at P51.10, hitting a high of P50.975 and a low of P51.15.
Trading turnover reached $1.43 billion.
“The index was hit by a slew of negative issues today, both internal and external,” said Gabriel Jose Perez, trader at Papa Securities Corp.
Perez noted that high on the “internal issues” was President Duterte’s tirade against Maynilad, Manila Water, and the Ayalas Tuesday night.
“External issues came from President Trump’s statement last night that he was willing to wait until after the 2020 elections to finish the Trade Deal with China – which then led to the S&P500 and the Dow gapping down last night and ending 0.7 percent and 1.0 percent in the red, respectively. This led to regional markets ending in the red today,” he added.
Most actively traded SM Investments Corp. was down by P7 to close at P1,062. Ayala Land Inc. was also down, shedding P1.25 to close at P46.
Metro Pacific Investments Corp., Ayala Corp. and SM Prime Holdings Inc. all closed lower.
Bank of the Philippine Islands was up by P1.75 to P89 while BDO Unibank Inc. was steady at P158.50.
Most Southeast Asian stock markets tracked a global downturn on Wednesday as the Trump administration dashed hopes of a quick preliminary deal to halt impending US tariffs on China.
US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said he had “no deadline” for a trade deal with China, and could wait until after the US presidential election in November 2020 to sign an agreement.
“There is justifiable cause to correlate Trump’s bluster to Beijing’s insistence that tariff rollback is a pre-condition to any deal,” Mizuho Bank said in a note to clients.
“In which case, it seems Trump’s priority is to not appear weak in the run-up to the elections.”
Tariff-sensitive Singapore stocks fell to their lowest in six weeks, dented by losses in consumer and banking sectors.
Lender United Overseas Bank fell over 1 percent, while agribusiness company Wilmar International lost over 2 percent.
Malaysian shares fell to their lowest in nearly eight weeks, after data showed that the country’s exports dropped for the third straight month in October, though the pace of decline was slower than expected.
Bucking the trend, Vietnam stocks edged a tick higher, helped by gains in financials. — with Reuters
