PSEi ends week weak

LOCAL financial markets were closed on Friday in celebration of Ninoy Aquino Day.

For the four-day trading week ending Thursday, the PSEi declined by 129.46 points or 1.74 percent to 7,278.98 while the second quarter local corporate earnings season ended on a sluggish note.

Prospects of higher interest rates in the United States alongside concerns on the Chinese economy, for now, are curbing global investors’ risk appetite.

In a research note issued on Friday, Citigroup said it remained “overweight” on developed market (DM) equities, split evenly between the US, Europe and Japan. “But we are concerned about loss of equity price momentum, disappointing EPS (earnings per share) trends and outright weakness in Ebit (earnings before interest and taxes),” Citi said.

As an asset class, Citi said the emerging markets (EM) group, on the other hand, was the “great conundrum.”

“All EM asset classes have been getting cheaper with little to choose between them. We are now neutral all EM assets, up from overall underweight last month. But EM fundamentals and [US Federal Reserve] tightening are still enough to stop us entering a contrarian overweight EM position,” Citi said. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla