Share prices ended lower Monday as risk aversion hit the market.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was down 46.54 points to 7,372.25, a 0.63 percent drop.
The broader all shares index fell by 7.03 points or 0.18 percent to 3,916.66.
Losers edged gainers 129 to 72 with 46 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P9.11 billion.
The peso closed at 51.38 to the dollar, down from 51.35 on Friday. It opened at 51.40 and hit a high of 51.36 and a low of 51.42. Trading turnover reached $713.5 million.
Emerging Asian equities were under pressure, with the Philippines benchmark falling the most, as much as 2.2 percent in its third consecutive session of losses.
“Philippine shares tumbled following the sentiment of the rest of the world as investors shifted to defensive sectors and safe havens such as bonds and gold as geopolitical tensions between Washington and Russia over Ukraine flared,” said Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development Corp.
“On top of this, there was a lack of positive leads with Wall St.’s trading floor closed Monday in observance of President’s Day. Aside from monitoring the rising geopolitical tensions between Ukraine and Russia, investors also await the release of the second estimate of fourth quarter US GDP on February 24, 2020,” he added.
Most actively traded SM Investments Corp. was up P61 to P860. Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corp. was up P0.19 to P1.86. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was up P1.70 to P39.90. Ayala Land Inc. was up P0.05 to P39.70. Dito CME Holdings Inc. was up P0.81 to P6.61. BDO Unibank Inc. was up P0.50 to P135. Monde Nissin Corp. was down P0.54 to P15.52. Globe Telecom inc. was steady at P2,700. Converge ICT Solutions Inc. was down P0.90 to P26.90.
PLDT Inc. was steady at P1,782. – Ruelle Castro
