Market resistance brings down stocks

MANILA, Philippines – The market saw some resistance yesterday, with the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) refusing to climb up to the 7,400 level.

After booking gains during the morning trade — the PSEi was up 1.48 points or 0.02 percent as of 12 noon yesterday, the main composite index shed 47.29 points or 0.64 percent to finish at 7,323.36 while the broader All Shares index lost 20.57 points or 0.47 percent.

Likewise, the sectoral indexes closed in negative territory except for mining and oil, which rose 57.58 points or 0.47 percent.

Total value turnover reached P5.46 billion.  Meanwhile, advancing stocks outnumbered decliners, 106 to 79 while 52 stocks were left unchanged.

SunLife chief investments officer Michael Enriquez said there are uncertainties affecting the market.

But Enriquez said this would be short-term only and that in the long term, the market would stabilize. “The market does not like uncertainty,” he said.

One source of uncertainty is the US withdrawal from the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP) trade.

Moody’s said the absence of a TPP would affect Asian nations.

 “We had anticipated TPP to reduce the cost of trade and open up new investment opportunities for its 12 members, and in particular, its Asian members,” Moody’s said.