PH shares dip on global concerns

MANILA, Philippines–The local stock index on Wednesday tumbled below the 7,200 mark as a muted global growth outlook from the International Monetary Fund curbed risk-taking across regional markets.

Weakening for the second straight session, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 53.7 points, or 0.74 percent, to close at 7,185.68.

All counters closed lower as global growth concerns added to local stock valuation jitters, dealers said.

This development came about just as Philippine inflation for September eased to 4.4 percent, confirming that the consumer price index had peaked in the last two months.

The International Monetary Fund expects the global economy to grow by 3.8 percent next year—slower than the 4 percent forecast in July. Global growth is seen at 3.3 percent this year.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.3 billion.

There were 71 advancers against 107 decliners, while 41 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was dragged down by DMCI and JFC, which both fell by over 2 percent. ALI, Megaworld, AC, Metrobank, AGI, EDC and FGEN all fell by over 1 percent.

PLDT, ALI, URC, SMIC, BDO, DSM Prime, AP and ICTSI also contributed to the day’s decline.

On the other hand, GTCAP rose by 0.65 percent while Bloomberry was up by 0.15 percent.–Doris C. Dumlao