MANILA – Worries on the Ukraine-Russia conflict, along with expectations for further acceleration of inflation due to jumps in oil prices, resulted in the negative close of the local stock barometer and the peso on Tuesday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 4.26 percent, or 310.34 points, to 6,977.73 points.
All Shares declined by 3.30 percent, or 127.46 points, to 3,739.52 points.
Most of the sectoral gauges also finished in the negative territory -- Financials, 5.16 percent; Holding Firms, 4.23 percent; Property, 4.08 percent; Industrial, 3.74 percent; and Services, 3.31 percent.
Only Mining and Oil rose during the day after it jumped by 3.62 percent.
Volume reached 2.35 billion shares amounting to PHP12.16 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 178 to 57, while 21 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine stocks plunged yet again on worries that the rising energy prices caused by the Russia-Ukraine war would slow the economy and drive inflation hotter,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales.
He said investors are awaiting the release of the February 2022 consumer price index (CPI) report for the US later this week, with consensus projection of 7.9 percent.
US’ CPI last January rose to 7.5 percent, its highest since 1982.
West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude futures also rose by 3.2 percent to USD119.40 per barrel, the highest since September 2008, and Brent crude jumped by 4.3 percent to USD123.21 per barrel.
Meanwhile, the local currency weakened further against the US dollar after finishing the day at 52.32 compared to its 51.28 close on Monday.
It opened the trade at 52.25, a depreciation from its 51.9 start in the previous session.
It ranged between 52.34 and 52.01, resulting in an average of 52.195.
Volume reached USD1.33 billion, lower than the previous session’s USD1.58 billion. (PNA)
