Shares rebound as US, China start negotiations

SHARES recovered in yesterday’s trading amid optimism on the results of the trade negotiations between United States and China.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) saw an increase of 1.09% or 83.78 points to close at 7,765.03 on Thursday, while the all shares index climbed 0.77% or 35.91 points to 4,691.90.

“Philippine shares rose on hopes of progress in US-China trade talks, though stocks pared some gains after Chinese officials said Beijing had lowered expectations for negotiations this week,” Luis A. Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp., said in a mobile message.

“The strong rally tailed off towards the last 15 minutes of trade after preliminary talks on the deputy level yielded no result on the trade talk,” he added. “A limited agreement and no additional tariffs would be a modestly positive development for risk assets.”

Eagle Equities, Inc. Research Head Christopher John Mangun shared this sentiment, saying in an e-mail on Thursday: “They are set to meet later tonight to try and avoid a scheduled Oct. 15 tariff rate increase on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods. Beijing offered to increase soybean purchases as a peace offering ahead of the high-level trade talks which also gave investors some relief.”

The United States’ and China’s top trade negotiators were set to meet on Thursday for the first time since late July to try to find a way out of a 15-month trade war as new irritants between the world’s two largest economies threatened hopes for progress.

Chinese Vice Premier Liu He, US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin will seek to narrow differences enough to avoid a scheduled Oct. 15 tariff rate increase on $250 billion worth of Chinese goods.

Most Southeast Asian markets held steady on Thursday, as investors remained cautious as neither Washington nor Beijing had shown signs of giving ground at the trade negotiations.

US S&P 500 mini futures tumbled after media reports cited that no progress was made in the deputy-level trade talks, and that the Chinese delegation was planning to leave Washington on Thursday after just one day of high-level talks, instead of Friday as originally planned.

Back home, all sectoral indices ended in the green, led by financials which climbed 1.75% or 31.22 points to 1,812.05 and property which moved up 1.34% or 54.03 points to 4,073.45. Services rose 0.87% or 13.15 points to 1,512.11; industrials which improved 0.6% or 63.23 points to 10,586.56; holding firms added 0.49% or 37.31 points to 7,576.45; and mining and oil jumped 0.4% or 36.72 points to 9,109.74.

Value turnover ballooned to P14.46 billion yesterday from the P4.80 billion logged on Wednesday, as 1.36 billion issues changed hands.

Advancers outnumbered decliners, 93 to 78, while 53 names closed unchanged.

Foreign investors were net buyers on Thursday with net inflows totaling P5.07 billion versus the previous session’s net sales worth P1.87 billion.