PSEi drops to 2-month low on US-China row
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Tue, 14 May 2019 16:40:24 +0000
THE stock market fell to its lowest level in more than two months on Tuesday as the escalating trade war between the United States and China rattled sentiment.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index fell by as much as 2 percent to 7,577.72 at intraday trading before paring losses to finish the day down by only 1.23 percent or 95.54 points to 7,646.66.
This level was the lowest since the market closed at 7,670.62 on March 5.
The wider All Shares, meanwhile, declined by 1.14 percent or 54.72 points to end at 4,736.54.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said the local market succumbed to a selloff following China’s retaliation of tariffs.
Beijing announced over the weekend that it would slap a 25-percent tariff on some $60 billion worth of US imports effective June 1. This covers peanuts, sugar, wheat, chicken and turkey products.
This was in response to Washington’s imposition last week of higher duties on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods, and threats to levy tariffs on another $325 billion of imports.
In a Twitter post on Monday, US President Donald Trump said China would be “hurt very badly” if it didn’t make a trade deal, noting that companies would be forced to leave the country without an agreement.
P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez echoed Limlingan’s view, saying market players should watch out for how the US market moves in the coming days.
Wall Street’s main indices all fell overnight. The Dow Jones dropped by 2.38 percent; the S&P 500, 2.41 percent; and the Nasdaq, 3.41 percent.
In Asia, Tokyo declined 0.59 percent, Shanghai decreased 0.69 percent, Hong Kong dived 1.39 percent, Jakarta dropped 1.02 percent, Singapore lost 0.67 percent and Bangkok slipped 0.52 percent. Only Seoul finished firm, up 0.14 percent.
In Manila, property and mining and oil sectors were the only gainers, up 0.94 percent and 1.19 percent, respectively.
More than 919 million issues were traded valued at P11.9 billion.
Losers led winners, 140 to 57, while 37 issues were unchanged.
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