STOCKS snapped their three-day rally on Thursday as investors went profit taking and shrugged off data showing a slightly slower July inflation print.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 37.94 points or 0.57% to close at 6,547.27 on Thursday, while the broader all shares index lost 17.02 points or 0.41% to finish at 4,042.57.
“As the market was up for three consecutive trading days, market succumbed to profit taking today as global growth concerns hounded the US and most of regional markets,” Diversified Securities, Inc. Equity Trader Aniceto K. Pangan said in a text message on Thursday.
Asian shares mostly held onto this week’s gains on Thursday, despite hawkish remarks from a senior official at the US Federal Reserve that boosted the dollar while weighing on risk appetite, Reuters reported.
MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan was down 0.16%. Japan’s Nikkei climbed 0.45%.
US stocks closed mostly lower on Wednesday, with the S&P 500 receding 0.46% from a record high. The blue-chip Dow slid 0.92%, though the tech heavy Nasdaq eked out small gains with investors there attaching greater weight to positive data from the services sector than to negative job figures.
“We believe that market has largely shrugged off the release of July inflation data as it came within expectations,” China Bank Securities Corp. Research Director Rastine Mackie D. Mercado said in a text message.
Preliminary data from the Philippine Statistics Authority showed July inflation slowed to 4% from 4.1% in June. However, it was higher than the 2.7% print logged in the same month last year.
All sectoral indices closed in the red on Thursday except for services, which gained 10.43 points or 0.65% to end at 1,605.72, and industrials, which went up by 42.36 points or 0.45% to 9,305.30.
Meanwhile, property dipped by 81.08 points or 2.63% to 2,996.97; mining and oil shed 53.65 points or 0.54% to 9,786.97; financials inched down by 7.36 points or 0.51% to close at 1,431.63; and holding firms declined by 14.35 points or 0.21% to 6,540.97.
Value turnover inched up to P4.77 billion with 962 million issues traded on Thursday, from the P4.64 billion with 1.10 billion issues seen on Wednesday.
Decliners outnumbered advancers, 108 against 80, while 34 names closed unchanged.
Net foreign buying increased to P237.61 million on Thursday from the P83.72 recorded the previous day.
“Short-term market moves will continue to be driven by pandemic-related developments, with specific sensitivity to prospects of an extension of stricter quarantine measures,” Mr. Mercado said.
He expects the PSEi to trade sideways within the 6,500 to 6,600 range or to retest the 6,270 to 6,300 levels.
“Investors may also stick to the sidelines ahead of the second quarter GDP (gross domestic product) report due out next week,” he added. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte