Inflation news tagged as PSEi touches 8,200
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Wed, 06 Feb 2019 16:20:48 +0000
THE stock market touched a 10-month high on Wednesday but last-minute profit-taking dragged it down as the day ended.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose to as high as 8,213.71 during intraday trading, a level last hit in March last year, but then succumbed in the afternoon to close at the day’s low of 8,058.45 — down 11.03 points or 0.14 percent from Monday.
The broader All Shares, on the other hand, inched up by 0.02 percent or 0.94 points to finish at 4,893.48.
Financial markets were closed on Tuesday in celebration of Chinese New Year.
Philstocks Financial Inc. research associate Piper Chaucer Tan attributed gains earlier on Wednesday to news that inflation continued to slow in January, which spurred hopes that Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) interest rates would be kept steady when the Monetary Board meets today, February 7.
The Philippine Statistics Authority announced on Tuesday that consumer price growth eased to a 10-month low last month, to 4.4 percent from December’s 5.1 percent. It fell within the BSP’s 4.3-5.1 percent projection and the 4.3-4.9 percent forecast range in a Manila Times poll of analysts.
P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez, in a separate comment, said investors then chose to take profits ahead of the Monetary Board meeting.
“[The] market should be waiting on the results of the BSP’s meeting (on the policy rate. Expectations are already pointing to the (central bank) to keep still, however,” he said.
The PSEi moved in line with regional counterparts that cheered overnight gains on Wall Street.
Tokyo inched up by 0.14 percent, Shanghai jumped 1.30 percent and Hong Kong grew 0.21 percent. Seoul and Singapore, on the other hand, ended down 0.06 percent and 0.13 percent, respectively.
Back in Manila, most sectoral results ended in the green except for holding firms, which dropped 1.23 percent.
More than 2.8 billion shares valued at P7.3 billion changed hands.
Winners led losers, 140 to 76, while 42 issues were unchanged.
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