PSEi slips 1.25% on external concerns

Philippine stocks declined yesterday, tracing poor sentiments across the region in the wake of the arrest of the chief financial officer of Chinese tech giant Huawei in Canada.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped 1.25 percent, or 95.58 points to 7,535.32, while the broader all shares index was down 0.94 percent, or 43.24 points to 4,530.92.

With the lack of convincing domestic drivers, investors looked toward external developments.

Rocking markets across the region was the news that Huawei’s Meng Wanzhou, also the daughter of the company’s founder, was arrested and was facing extradition to the United States. The development comes amid trade tensions between the United States and China.

On Thursday, all PSE subsectors closed in the red, with losses led by property, down 1.95 percent, followed by holding firms, down 1.35 percent.

A total of 4.6 billion shares valued at P7.2 billion changed hands yesterday. There were 74 advancers against 113 decliners, while 50 companies closed unchanged.

Conglomerate Aboitiz Equity Ventures Inc. was the most actively traded on Thursday as it lost 1.59 percent to P52.75 per share.

It was followed by Ayala Corp., down 2.71 percent to P934, SM Investments Corp., down 1.04 percent to P950, Asia Best Group, up 36.51 percent to P29.35 and Ayala Land Inc., down 1.41 percent to P41.90 per share.