MANILA -- Investors stayed on the sidelines Monday, resulting in the slight dip of Philippine shares and the peso weakness after Chinese trade negotiators cut short their trip to the US.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended the day at 7,867.51 points, down 0.05 percent or 3.60 points.
Regina Capital Managing Director Luis Limlingan attributed the decline to concerns on the US-China trade talks.
This, after the Chinese trade delegation cancelled its scheduled trips to farms in Montana and Nebraska, which somewhat diminished hopes that the world’s second largest economy would repurchase US agricultural commodities after it stopped to buy last April in retaliation to the tariff imposed by the US.
On the other hand, sentiments were boosted by the rise in European stocks last Friday due to stimulus measures by several banks overseas, which in turn, addressed fears for another global economic downturn.
“Stocks also got a boost from European Commission President Jean-Claude Juncker’s remarks late Thursday, saying a Brexit deal is still possible before the Oct. 31 deadline,” Limlingan said.
With these factors, most of the counters tracked the main index, with the All Shares down by 0.23 percent, or 11.11 points, to 4,761.24 points.
Services registered the highest drop with 1.39 percent, followed by the Mining and Oil, 1.07 percent; Industrial, 0.76 percent; Holding Firms, 0.16; and Financials, 0.14 percent.
Only the Property index ended with gains after rising by 1.18 percent.
Volume reached 3.35 billion shares amounting to PHP5.86 billion.
Losers led gainers at 149 to 57, while 45 shares were unchanged.
Also, the local currency ended the day at 52.185 from 51.96 Friday last week.
It opened the week better at 52.05 from the previous session’s 52.26.
It improved to 51.95 but also dipped to 52.225, bringing the day’s average to 52.06.
Volume reached USD1.26 billion, higher than the USD1.14 billion at the end of last week.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 51.90 and 52.10 Tuesday. (PNA)
