Stocks down by nearly 1%

The local stock barometer Thursday shied away from the 8,100 mark as investors turned cautious over key central bank meetings.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 75.5 points or 0.93 percent to close at 8,024.98 as second quarter corporate earnings reports started streaming in.

Although the US Federal Reserve kept interest rates steady, investors are speculating on a potential interest rate hike by December.

“As expected, the US Fed did not ruffle feathers at the July FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting. The Fed delivered a well calibrated message by acknowledging the improvement in US economic data but not committing to the timing of next hike. Our economist thinks that the earliest time for the next rate hike is December, as long as data remain ‘on track’ and no

‘event risk’ materializes,” Citigroup said in a research note.

In the meantime, all eyes are on Bank of Japan’s meeting. Citi said expectations of BoJ easing were running high. Analysts expect various combinations of further rate cuts into negative territory and increase in monetary base to be announced on Friday (July 29).

At the local market, the holding firm and property counters dragged the PSEi lower, both declining by more than 1 percent.  The industrial and services counters also slipped.

On the other hand, the financial and mining/oil counters modestly climbed.

Value turnover amounted to P10.14 billion.  There were 70 advancers which were outnumbered by 121 decliners, while 53 stocks were unchanged.

JG Summit weighed down the PSEi with a 3.05-percent drop while ALI and AEV both tumbled by more than 2 percent.

SM Prime, AC and URC all slipped by more than 1 percent while MPI, PLDT and Metrobank also declined.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable decliner was DoubleDragon which slid by 4 percent.

On the other hand, SMIC, GTCAP and Megaworld modestly gained.

Notable gainers outside the PSEi included newly listed Cemex (+1.16 percent), Vitarich (+8.53 percent) and Cebu Air (+5.2 percent). Doris Dumlao-Abadilla