PSEi recovers ahead of GDP data, MB meeting
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Wed, 08 May 2019 16:20:54 +0000
THE stock market recovered from intraday losses on Wednesday as investors repositioned portfolios ahead of the release of gross domestic product (GDP) data and of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) policymaking Monetary Board (MB) meeting today.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rallied at the last minute, finishing up by 0.20 percent or 16.06 points to 7,926.69. It fell by as much as 1.97 percent in intraday trading.
The wider All Shares declined by 0.20 percent or 9.57 points to end at 4,876.98.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said shares were sold down heavily for most of the day as sentiment was dampened by renewed trade tensions between the United States and China.
Limlingan was referring to news that Washington would impose on Friday (US time) a 25-percent tariff on some $200 billion worth Chinese goods. It is currently at 10 percent.
US President Donald Trump order the tariff through a Twitter post over the weekend, and threats of another round of duties on $325 billion worth of Chinese goods could be imposed “shortly.”
“However, at closing, many decided to cherry-pick key names as many await for the release of [first-quarter GDP] and the outcome of the BSP meeting both happening,” Limlingan explained.
In a separate comment, P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said market players repositioned portfolios on expectations of good GDP data.
“All that’s left to look forward to in the next few days would be how US markets move in the following nights and the…economic data,” he added.
In the region, markets continued to fall over the US-China tensions. Tokyo was down by 1.46 percent, Shanghai dropped 1.12 percent, Hong Kong declined 1.23 percent, Seoul lost 0.41 percent, Jakarta decreased 0.82 percent, Singapore slid 0.91 percent, and Bangkok shed 0.75 percent.
In the US, Nasdaq was down the most by 1.96 percent, followed by the Dow Jones, which slid by 1.79 percent, and S&P 500, which dipped by 1.65 percent.
In Manila, only holding firms and financial sectors finished in the green, up 0.68 percent and 1.06 percent, respectively.
More than 790 million issues were traded valued at P7.12 billion.
Losers led winners, 133 to 63, while 46 issues were unchanged.
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