PSEi tracks Wall Street drop

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market tracked the performance of US equities, finishing with losses yesterday.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index fell by 0.61 percent or 45.5 points to close at 7,367.66.

The broader All Shares index was also in the negative territory, dropping by 0.85 percent or 34.74 points to 4,050.76.

“Stocks slipped along with Wall Street, as investors grappled with ongoing concerns about rising interest rates and processed the latest earnings reports released this week,” Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said.

Limlingan said US equities closed slightly down on Tuesday as investors continued to worry about rising interest rates.

“Back home, value turnover remained weak as a certain number of institutions were closed over the typhoons, while other awaited more third quarter financial results and expectations of policy easing by the central bank,” Limlingan said.

Net value turnover stood at P4.08 billion, lower from the previous day’s P5.24 billion.

Most of the sectors were in the red. The only mining and oil as well as holding firms finishing higher by 0.43 percent and 0.08 percent, respectively.

The services index, meanwhile, suffered the biggest loss at 1.92 percent.

Decliners pummeled advancers, 128 to 71, while 55 issues were unchanged.

BDO remained the top traded company, declining by 0.43 percent to P163.30 per share, followed by ICTSI, which plunged by 2.49 percent to P407.

Monde Nissin led the index members with a 3.79-percent gain, while Globe Telecom posted the largest drop at 3.35 percent.