Hawkish Fed chair weighs down local shares

Investors fled the market as the worries over monetary policy tightening soured their sentiment, prompting the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) to open the shortened trading week in negative territory.

The benchmark PSEi fell by 0.92 percent, or 62.23 points, to close at 6,690.27 while the wider All-Shares index dropped by 0.81 percent, or 28.95 points, to settle at 3,548.50.

“Philippine shares settled in the red amid mounting concerns over rising rates and tighter US monetary policy, which reflected the blunt remarks made by Fed Chair Powell in the recently held Jackson Hole,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.

Limlingan noted that Powell’s “short and blunt” statement “appeared to extinguish hopes of the central bank changing its aggressive course of rate hikes in the months ahead.”

Claire Alviar, Philstocks Financial, Inc. assistant manager for research and online engagement, said that the weak peso, which has been trading at 56:$1 level, also contributed to poor market sentiment.

“We may expect the peso to depreciate further if the Fed will continue to hike interest rates,” she added.

All sectors were in the red, with services booking the steepest decline at 1.09 percent. This was followed by holding firms and financials indices, which slid by 1.01 percent and 0.93 percent, respectively.

About 1.26 billion shares amounting to P5.98 billion were traded. Losers outpaced winners, 124-58, while 51 issues did not change hands.

BDO Unibank Inc.’s shares, the most actively traded, slipped by 0.08 percent to P131.40 each.

—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad INQ