PSEi falls further into bear territory
THE stock market slipped further into bear territory on Thursday as inflation concerns and the peso’s weakness continued to spook investors.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 1.20 percent or 86.50 points to close at 7,134.73, down 21.2 percent from a 9,058.62 peak recorded on January 29.
The wider All Shares declined by 0.96 percent or 42.75 points to finish at 4,411.96.
Philstocks Financial, Inc. research analyst Piper Chaucer Tan said selloffs were due to fears that inflation would continue to rise, instead of ease in the last three months of the year, given the impact of Typhoon Ompong.
The peso’s continued weakness also contributed, he added.
The currency, which hit a near 13-year low of P54.13 to the dollar last week, lost 8.5 centavos on Wednesday to close at P54.07:$1.
Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp., said the local market continued to be viewed as a risk.
Latest balance of payments data that showed a return to surplus last month was not enough to lure investors back, he added.
The PSEi’s continued decline again bucked regional results. Most Asian markets rose on Wednesday a recent rally was said to have lost its legs despite optimism over likely US-China trade talks that boosted the Dow and S&P 500 overnight.
Tokyo barely moved, Shanghai was slightly lower and Hong Kong fluctuated before ending up 0.3 percent.
Singapore inched higher and Seoul put on 0.7 percent while Wellington edged up 0.2 percent following data showing that the New Zealand economy grew at its fastest in two years during the second quarter.
Jakarta put on 0.9 percent but Sydney and Taipei dropped.
Back in Manila, all sectoral indices settled in the red, led by holding firms that fell by 1.72 percent.
Volume turnover remained thin with only 792 million issues valued at P4.6 billion traded.
Losers led winners, 113 to 82, while 33 issues were unchanged.
WITH A REPORT FROM AFP
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