PSEi ends trading week in the red amid US inflation jitters

Wall Street jitters due to higher-than-expected inflation in the United States spilled over to the local market, prompting the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) to end the trading week in the red.

The benchmark PSEi dropped by 1.36 percent, or 101.15 points, to end at 7,310.32 while the broader All Shares Index slipped by 0.55 percent, or 22.36 points, to settle at 4,015.16.

“Negative spillover from Wall Street is seen as one of the downsides in today’s session. This, as the US’ September inflation came in above expectations, tempering hopes of a fast-paced policy easing by the Federal Reserve,” Philstocks Financial Inc. senior analyst Japhet Tantiangco said.

READ: PSEi continues to bog down amid weaker peso

US inflation reached 2.4 percent in September, which was lower than 2.5 percent in August but was still above the 2.3 percent forecast by analysts.

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In addition, Tantiangco noted investors were also worried about the peso still trading at weaker than 57:$1. On Friday, the local currency closed at 57.205 against the greenback.

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READ: Peso slips back to 57:$1

All the subsectors were in the red. Property index had the steepest decline at 2.2 percent, followed by the services index at 1.7 percent.

About 692.95 million shares valued at P5.51 billion were traded. Losers outpaced winners, 131-72, while 44 issues were unchanged.

The most actively traded shares were that of BDO Unibank Inc., dipping by 0.19 percent to P156.50 each.

It was followed by International Container Terminal Services Inc., down 3 percent to P407.80; Ayala Land Inc., down 3.15 percent to P35.35; Ayala Corp., down 1.16 percent to P722; SM Prime Holdings, down 2.33 percent to P31.50; and SM Investments Corp., down 1.43 percent to P965. INQ

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