PSEi goes downhill for 6th consecutive day
Credit to Author: Tyrone Jasper C. Piad| Date: Mon, 03 Feb 2020 16:20:33 +0000
The local bourse has not yet sought refuge from the global epidemic that is the 2019-novel Coronavirus (2019-nCoV), plunging into red territory for sixth consecutive trading day.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped by 0.89 percent or 63.76 points to end at 7,137.03 while the wider All Shares declined 0.82 percent or 35.38 points to finish at 4,256.83 on Monday.
PSEi has gone down by nearly 8 percent year-to-date, markedly lower from 7,700 level at the start of 2020.
“Mounting fears on the coronavirus and its impact on the global economy sends the local bourse, together with the other Asian markets, into negative territory,” Philstocks Financial Inc. said in a market comment.
The steep losses led another sell-off across Asia following a painful week for global markets with the virus death toll topping 360 people and more than 17,000 infected, and governments around the world banning flights to and from China.
Analysts have warned the outbreak could slash global growth this year, throwing a spanner in the works just as economies were showing signs of stabilizing after more than a year of slowing.
Observers said that with China being a crucial part of the global trade infrastructure, other countries would also be badly hit, while major corporate names have frozen or scaled back their Chinese operations, threatening the global supply chain.
“Philippine stocks fell sharply as investors grew increasingly worried about the potential economic impact of China’s fast-spreading coronavirus,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan added.
Wall Street was down. Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq fell by 2.09 percent, 1.77 percent and 1.59 percent, respectively.
In Asia, most markets were in the red as well. Tokyo declined 1.01 percent, Shanghai plunged 7.72 percent, Seoul shed 0.01 percent, Jakarta fell 0.40 percent, Singapore slid 1.07 percent, Thailand slipped 0.50 percent and Vietnam dipped 1.11 percent. Hong Kong, meanwhile, inched up 0.29 percent.
In Manila, all sectors were down except for industrial that rose by 0.50 percent.
Volume turnover stood at 833.35 million shares amounting to P5.87 billion.
Losers led winners, 129-73, while 39 issues were unchanged.
WITH A REPORT FROM AFP