PSEi slides to 7,300 on US rate hike jitters

THE LOCAL stock barometer slid to the 7,300 level on Thursday as Asian emerging markets grappled with prospects of another US interest rate hike.

Declining for the seventh straight trading session, the Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 117.64 points or 1.58 percent to close at 7,312.18. The local market tracked the downturn across regional markets as investors brace for a possible US interest rate hike by December ahead of the release of the minutes of the last US Federal Reserve meeting.

At the local market, there was bloodbath across all counters but the worst hit was the interest rate-sensitive property counter which tumbled by 4.63 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.78 billion. Foreign investors remained net sellers amounting to P750 million for the day.

There were 164 decliners that overwhelmed 29 advancers while 44 stocks were unchanged.

Investors dumped shares of property stocks SM Prime (-5.27 percent) Megaworld (-5.52 percent) while ALI and RLC both slumped by over 4 percent.

Non-PSEi property stocks like DoubleDragon (-6.87 percent) also slid.

GT Capital and Metrobank both fell by over 2 percent while AC, SMIC, BDO, BPI, Meralco and ICTSI all slumped by over 1 percent.

PLDT, URC, Globe and JG Summit also slipped.

On the other hand, Security Bank and Metro Pacific bucked the day’s downturn, both rising by over 2 percent.