PSEi extends decline, ends week at 8,503.69

LOCAL share prices were caught up in a global rout on Friday with the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ending the trading week just short of falling into 8,400 territory.

The benchmark index lost 1.64 - ish at 8,503.69 while wider All Shares dropped 1.30 percent or 66.29 points to end at 5,028.38.

Fears of higher borrowing investors from equities to safe haven assets, First Grade Finance, Inc. Managing Director Astro del Castillo said.

“We’re just caught in the wave of negative sentiment globally triggered by the risk coming from overseas, particularly the US, due to higher bond yields,” he said.

Adding to concerns was a second US government shutdown after Congress failed to meet a budget approval deadline, he added.

A Regina Capital Development Corp. analyst, meanwhile, said Philippine markets “retreated deeper into negative territory as Wall Street tangled with further volatility, with concerns about weighing on investors’ psyche[s] against the backdrop of a relatively healthy domestic economy.”

Brokerage firm Papa Securities Corp. also pointed to Wall Street’s slump on Thursday and said the local stock market could “oscillate between 8,400 and 8,700” moving forward.

All sectoral indices ended Friday in the red with the property sector leading the decline with a 2.46 percent drop.

Over 1.35 billion issues valued at P8.6 billion changed hands.

Losers led winners, 138 to 64, while 46 issues were unchanged.