PH bourse greets May with a decline

Risk aversion marked the local stock market’s first trading session for May due to fresh US-China tensions over the origin of the new coronavirus.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell by 128.62 points, or 2.26 percent, to close on Monday at 5,572.09, tracking mostly sluggish markets across the region.

“Comments from US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo over the weekend have diminished optimism,” said Christopher Mangun, head of research at AAA Equities, referring to Pompeo’s allegation that the virus had emerged from a laboratory in the central Chinese city of Wuhan.Such comments “rattled investors and caused them to take some money off the table,” Mangun said.

At the local market, Mangun noted that the PSEi had opened more than a hundred points lower from its close last Friday as investors rushed to close positions.

“The main index hovered above 5,500 for most of the trading day as bargain hunters took advantage. Last-minute buying propelled it higher, trimming some of its losses for the day. We may see it bounce higher [Tuesday] unless investors lose more optimism overnight,” he said.

Foreign outflows continued with P508.9 million worth of net foreign selling.

All subindices ended lower but the market was weighed down most by the holding firm counter, which slid by 2.9 percent, while the financial and industrial counters also both declined by over 2 percent.

The services, mining/oil and property counters all declined by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P5.12 billion.

There were 150 decliners that edged out 46 advancers, while 34 stocks were unchanged. INQ