PSEi weakens more on cautious investors
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Wed, 15 May 2019 16:24:08 +0000
SHARE prices slumped further on Wednesday as investors played safe amid ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell at the last minute by 0.92 percent or 69.95 points to close at 7,576.71 after trading most of the day in the green.
The wider All Shares declined by 0.60 percent or 28.37 points to finish at 4,708.17.
“Market players were still gauging whether the slump yesterday was a good time for bargain hunting as the Sino-US trade war gets worse,” Timson Securities Inc. trader Jervin de Celis said, adding that investors took opportunities to sell before market close.
“It’s apparent that market players are playing it safe, they cash in whatever profit they can take from PSEi’s rally while we are waiting for any developments in the negotiation between the US and China,” De Celis said.
On Tuesday, Washington said it prepared the list of $300-billion Chinese goods that could face tariff hikes — apart from the first $200 billion slapped with 25-percent tariff last week — in retaliation to Beijing’s levying of 25-percent duties on US imports.
In the local front, De Celis said sell-offs in shares of SM Prime Holdings Inc., Ayala Land Inc., SM Investments Corp., and Jollibee Foods Corp., helped with the decline.
Shares of SMPH dropped 2.34 percent or 90 centavos to P37.50 each while its parent firm SMIC lost 1.33 percent or P12 to finish at P890 each.
Ayala Land, on the other hand, declined 1.98 percent or 95 centavos to P47 each, while JFC was sold down by 3.17 percent or P9.60 to P293 on announcements that its net income plunged by 15 percent.
The local market bucked a Wall Street rally, with its three indices all finishing in the green.
Regional counterparts were mixed. Tokyo increased 0.58 percent, Shanghai climbed 1.91 percent, Hong Kong grew 0.67 percent, Seoul rose 0.53 percent. Jakarta declined
1.01 percent, Singapore lost 0.24 percent, and Bangkok slipped 0.46 percent.
In Manila, only the services index finished firm, up 1.60 percent.
More than 761 million issues were traded valued at P7.23 billion.
Losers led winners, 98 to 92, while 52 issues were unchanged.
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