Shares slump as Wall Street dampens sentiment

LOCAL SHARES fell on Tuesday as investors were dampened by the decline in US markets.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi)declined 1.18% or 82.37 points to 6,843.83. The broader all-shares index fell 0.98% or 41.84 points to 4,211.13.

“It has been a bad day across the Philippines board despite a US holiday with the US stocks falling over 2%, led by technology sector as Apple tumbled on signs of weak iPhone demand,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan said in a mobile message on Tuesday. “Investors were also digesting developments in the oil market and parsed the effects of a rising US dollar, reaching its highest level in 16 months.”

In a mobile message, Timson Securities, Inc. trader Jervin S. de Celis said Saudi’s announcement to curb its oil output may have also triggered the sell-off seen across Asian markets as “the oil exporting country tries to pump prices after the commodity asset has entered the bear market probably due to low demand as the effect of trade war starts to bite other economies.”

Back home, all sub-indices were down. Holding firms plunged 1.62% or 111.34 points to 6,737.03; property slumped 1.22% or 41.62 points to 3,356.96; financials dropped 1.19% or 18.63 points to 1,544.88; mining and oil slid 0.98% or 89.89 points to 9,073.08; industrials went down 0.63% or 66.25 points to 10,397.67; and services edged down 0.39% or 5.38 points to 1,371.55.

Value turnover totaled P8.17 billion on Tuesday as 2.95 billion shares switched hands, climbing from Monday’s P6.64 billion.

Losers outnumbered advancers, 155 to 55, with 36 names unchanged.

Foreigners continued to dump shares, with net outflows totaling P1.26 billion yesterday, double Monday’s P608.95-million net sales.

Most Southeast Asian stock markets also slipped on Tuesday, tracking losses in broader Asian peers, after a rout in US tech stocks and slump in oil prices led to a sell-off on the Wall Street.

Political risks in Europe and the ongoing trade conflict between China and the United States prompted investors to unload risk-sensitive assets.

Major US stock indexes dropped more than 1% overnight, with tech-heavy Nasdaq slumping over 2%.

Weighed by a cocktail of negative factors, MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan dropped 1.7% to a 1-1/2week trough.

Singapore stocks were poised for a third straight session of losses, as financials weighed on the benchmark.

Malaysian shares were set to extend losses, with IOI Corp. Bhd hitting a nearly 10-month low. The country’s second-largest palm oil company, IOI Corp., reported a quarterly net profit of 143.8 million ringgit compared with 360 million ringgit in the previous year.

Thai shares traded 0.2% lower, dragged by losses in real estate and financial stocks.

Bucking the trend, Indonesian shares recovered from previous session’s losses, driven by gains in consumer staples and energy stocks. •

PSEi: 6,843.83