PSEi drops ahead of inflation, holiday
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Mon, 04 Feb 2019 18:02:44 +0000
THE stock market retreated on Monday as market players resorted to profit-taking ahead of the announcement of official inflation figures and the Chinese New Year holiday.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 0.92 percent or 74.68 points to close at 8,069.48 while the wider All Shares declined by 0.35 percent or 16.97 points to finish at 4,892.54.
P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said market players took positions ahead of the release of January inflation data due today, February 5, when markets will be closed for Chinese New Year.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas last week said that it expected consumer prices to have settled between 4.3-5.1 percent. A result below the upper end of the range will continue a consumer price easing that began in November.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan, in a separate comment, said Philippine shares traded quietly in the red ahead of the Chinese New Year.
The market bucked gains elsewhere in Asia. Tokyo grew by 0.46 percent, Shanghai jumped 1.30 percent, Hong Kong increased 0.21 percent, and Bangkok rose 0.30 percent.
On the other hand, Seoul dipped 0.06 percent, Jakarta declined 0.70 percent, and Singapore slipped by 0.13 percent.
Overnight on Wall Street, the Nasdaq ended down 0.25 percent. The Dow Jones and the S&P 500 grew 0.26 percent and 0.09 percent, respectively.
Back in Manila, most sectoral results were in the red except for services and mining and oil that rose by 0.14 percent and 0.83 percent, respectively.
Volume turnover stood at 3.27 billion shares valued at P7.3 billion.
Winners led losers, 124 to 83, while 47 issues were unchanged.
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