Manila, Philippines - Negative news abroad weighed down investor sentiment yesterday, with stocks ending in the red for the first time this week.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped 0.72 percent or 37.03 points to close at 5,109.43, snapping a three-day climb, while the broader all shares fell 0.4 percent or 13.72 points to 3,380.94.
Decliners outpaced advancers, 81 to 72, while 49 stocks did not change. Turnover slipped, with 3.14 billion shares worth P5.1 billion changing hands from 5.18 billion shares worth P6.08 billion a day ago.
“The local market closed in disappointment yesterday as it expected a more aggressive move from the Federal Reserve’s monetary stimulus of extending the Operation Twist,” said brokerage firm AB Capital Securities Inc.
The Fed extended its $267-billion program of swapping short-term bonds for long-term ones until the end of the year.
“Yesterday’s session was a seesaw ride for investors with the market opening lower and trading in the red in the morning, recovering to positive territory by mid-session, and then freefalling at the close,” said RCBC Securities Inc.
“In the US, the Fed lowered its gross domestic growth forecast for 2012,” RCBC said. The US Fed cut its forecast for economic growth this year to 2.9 percent from 2.4 percent earlier as unemployment was still high.
Investors were also discouraged by gloomy data from China, whose purchasing managers’ index, a measure of the manufacturing sector, slipped to 48.1 in June from 48.4 in May due to lower exports and tempered domestic demand.
Locally, all subindices, save for mining and oil firms that inched up 0.39 percent or 96.38 points to 24,726.60, were in the red.
AB Capital said mining speculators and stakeholders await the government’s launch of its new mining policy.
Property companies led the losers, declining by 1.37 percent or 26.56 points to 1,910.94, followed by holding firms that dropped 1.06 percent or 47.20 points to 4,396.17. - By Neil Jerome C. Morales
