The stock market retreated Wednesday as investors took profits from recent gains, with the Philippine Stock Exchange Index consolidating around the 8,800-point mark.
The PSEi dropped 16.14 points, or 0.2 percent, to 8,848.99 on a value turnover of P9.6 billion. Losers beat gainers, 120 to 92, with 49 issues unchanged.
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., the second-biggest lender in terms of asset, sank 7.8 percent to P98.70, while parent firm GT Capital Holdings Inc. tumbled 5.9 percent to P1,350.
Megaworld Corp., the largest lessor of office spaces, slumped 4 percent to P4.80, while Bloomberry Resorts Corp., which operates a casino facility on a reclaimed part of Manila Bay, dropped 2.3 percent to P11.04.
The rest of Asian stocks started the day in the red on Wednesday, but the Hang Seng Index climbed 0.25 percent, or 78.66 points, to finish at 31,983.41″•overtaking its previous high of October 30, 2007, before the global financial crisis kicked in”•as traders piled into the market in the final minutes.
In Shanghai, the benchmark composite index gained 0.24 percent, or 8.08 points, to 3,444.67 but the Shenzhen Composite Index, which tracks stocks on China’s second exchange, fell 0.30 percent, or 5.82 points, to 1,921.74.
Tokyo shed 0.4 percent on a stronger yen, while Sydney fell 0.5 percent, Singapore slipped 0.4 percent and Seoul fell 0.3 percent. However, Shanghai added 0.2 percent, while there were also gains in Taipei and Wellington.
The dollar rebounded from morning losses to extend Tuesday’s recovery though bitcoin was well down following what one analyst called a “cryptocalypse” that saw digital currencies take a hammering.
The dips across markets were in line with a sell-off on Wall Street, which returned from a long holiday weekend to political horse-trading as Washington lawmakers struggle to avert a crippling government shutdown.
While a deal to fund programs is expected to be met by the Friday deadline the uncertainty provided an opportunity to cash in after all three main indexes hit peaks last week.
The retreat also comes after a blistering start to the year for equity traders, and Hartmut Issel, head of Asia Pacific equity and credit at UBS AG Wealth Management in Singapore, told Bloomberg Television: “It’s more of a healthy correction” in stocks.
“The last two and a half weeks have been very strong and in some cases we were really wondering if you extrapolate this another three or four weeks we would have exhausted the potential we saw for the entire year.”
Among the big losers were energy firms after both main oil contracts sank more than one percent as expectations of falling US stockpiles were overshadowed by worries that Russia is considering ending its role in an output freeze with Opec.
PetroChina and Sinopec in Hong Kong both lost more than one percent while CNOOC was two percent off and Japan’s Inpex was 1.2 percent lower.
On forex markets, the dollar pressed on with a small recovery against its major peers after falling to a three-year low against the euro. But analysts say a move globally towards tighter monetary policy could keep pressure on the greenback. With AFP