PSEi slides to 7,900 on lower Q2 GDP
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Fri, 28 Jun 2019 16:16:32 +0000
THE stock market fell below the 8,000 level on Friday as investors were said to be disheartened by Moody’s Investors Service’s dampening of Philippine economic-growth expectations the second quarter.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 0.72 percent or 57.93 points to close at 7,999.71, while the broader All Shares declined by 0.62 percent or 30.53 points to end at 4,893.78.
“Moody’s poor expectations [of second-quarter] gross domestic product” caused the local market to plunge, Philstocks Financial Inc. said in a market note.
The debt watcher said on Thursday the country should brace for disappointing economic growth for April to June as a result of the government underspending in the first five months of the year.
It attributed the underspending to the four-and-a-half-month delay in the passage of the 2019 national budget and to the election ban, and ongoing trade tensions between the United States and China.
“At this point, I don’t think you should be excited about Q2 (second quarter),” Moody’s Vice President and Senior Credit Officer Christian de Guzman told reporters during a briefing.
Philstocks also said investors repositioned portfolios ahead of any cue on the ongoing Group of 20 (G20) meeting in Osaka, Japan, where US President Donald Trump and Chinese President Xi Jinping are expected to meet on the sidelines of the event.
In a separate comment, Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan pointed to profit-taking as having dragged down the index.
In the United States, the Dow Jones was the sole loser, down 0.04 percent. S&P500 and Nasdaq increased by 0.38 percent and 0.73 percent, respectively.
In Asia, Tokyo decreased by 0.29 percent, Shanghai declined by 0.60 percent, Hong Kong lost 0.28 percent, Seoul slipped by 0.17 percent,
Jakarta rose 0.15 percent, Singapore inched up by 0.05 percent, and Bangkok was up by 0.10 percent.
In Manila, only the mining and oil index finished firmer, up 0.85 percent.
More than 1.29 billion issues were traded valued at P19.56 billion.
Losers led winners, 107 to 89, while 53 issues were unchanged.
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