Stocks tread water ahead of Jackson Hole meet
THE Philippine Stock Exchange index ( PSEi) retreated by 0.58% on Tuesday’s session in what analysts described as anemic trading days ahead of the US central bank chief’s speech on Aug. 26.
The bellwether index lost 46.03 points to end trading at 7,935.18, tracking Wall Street.
“The US was flattish to negative on account of [investors staying] on a waitand-see mode before [Federal Reserve Chair Janet] Yellen’s talk on Friday,” said Luis A. Limlingan, business development head at Regina Capital Development Corp.
Ms. Yellen is scheduled to speak before global policy makers at an annual symposium in Jackson Hole, Wyoming.
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Asia shares inched up on Tuesday. MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan added 0.3% in slow trade. South Korea , Australia and Shanghai all gained.
Japan’s Nikkei went the other way and eased 0.6% as the yen ground higher on the dollar.
The whole world seems to have hushed ahead of comments from Ms. Yellen. Investors still doubt the stars will align for a hike anytime soon, so a hawkish tone from Ms. Yellen would challenge that equanimity.
“Ever so slowly, the market does seem to be reluctantly acknowledging the chorus of senior Fed speakers who have suggested recently that a 2016 rate hike is still quite probable and September is ‘ live,’” wrote analysts at ANZ in a note.
Ahead of that event, all-shares dropped 24.07 points or 0.51% to close at 4,698.94.
“I expect it to consolidate ahead of Yellen’s speech at Jackson Hole,” said Miguel A. Agarao, vice-president Philequity Management, Inc.
It didn’t help either that oil prices in the international market were down, said Mr. Limlingan noting that could mean demand for the commodity may be falling, an indication that the global economy is still soft.
“So we’re feeling the effects [of the decline in oil prices],” he said describing the impact on the Philippines, a net importer of the product.
Only the financials index closed higher at 1,839.77, or a gain of 2.68 points or 0.14%. Services recorded the biggest decline, paring 25.18 points or 1.57% to 1,576.16. Industrial stocks were down 150.13 points or 1.24% to 11,996.79.
Property shares slipped by 24.27 points or 0.67% to 3,607.04. Holding firms declined by 14.36 points or 0.18% to 7,891.52. The mining and oil index retreated by 14.80 points or 0.14% to 10,612.74.
Universal Robina Corp., Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and SM Prime Holdings, Inc. were the most actively traded stocks.
Yesterday, trading volume swelled to P6.85 billion from P6.32 billion the day before, with 117 issues going down as against 72 that advanced. The trading day closed with 44 stocks staying unchanged.
Net foreign selling amounted to P464.51 million, as investors bought P3.19 billion worth of shares and sold P3.66 billion.