PH shares trade weaker on Wall St losses

SHARE prices on the Philippine Stock Exchange followed the lead of US markets, which registered their steepest declines since the Brexit concerns spooked markets in October.

The main Philippine Stock Exchange ( PSE) index lost 0.93 percent or 68.38 points to close at 7,254.93 on Wednesday.

The wider All Shares declined by 0.83 percent or 36.34 points to 4,369.03.

“US stocks suffered their worst single session since October as financials took a serious beating, their worst since the initial Brexit- driven downdraft,” Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development Corp., said.

“Continuing fallout from the dovish or less hawkish Federal Open Market Committee, anxiety over the agenda of US President Donald Trump ahead of Thursday’s key vote on healthcare, and fundamental weakness in autos or auto lenders and energy as oil revisited new lows for the year added to the overall negative tone,” he added.

First Metro Investments Corp. (FMIC) said in the March issue The Market Call that local that equities are likely to move sideways manner in the next two months on lack of catalysts.

On Wednesday, the Services index posted the biggest loss of 1.54 percent. The rest of the sectoral indices were also in the red.

Among the actively traded stocks, SM Prime Holdings Inc. was flat while Universal Robina Corp. and Ayala Corp. were gainers. Ayala Land Inc., Metro Pacific Investments Corp., BDO Unibank Inc. and Puregold Price Club Inc. were among the losers.

More than 1.28 billion shares, amounting to P7.7 billion, changed hands. Decliners outpaced advancers, 127 to 57, while 52 issues were unchanged.

The PSEi increased by 0.09 percent or 6.74 points to 7,323.31 on Tuesday, while the All Shares inched up by 0.02 percent or 1.03 points to 4,405.37.