The stock market tumbled Thursday as the odds rose for a US interest-rate increase before the end of the year.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index sank 78.57 points, or 1.1 percent, to 7,122.45 on a value turnover of P6.5 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 124 to 48, with 44 issues unchanged.
China’s Shanghai Composite Index, meanwhile, entered a bull market as an unprecedented state rescue effort pays off. The Shanghai Composite advanced 1.8 percent, taking its rebound from this year’s low on Aug. 26 to more than 20 percent.
Hong Kong’s Hang Seng China Enterprises Index gained 0.6 percent, while Indonesia’s benchmark equity gauge fell after the country’s economic growth missed forecasts. Russia’s ruble weakened the most in more than a week and Malaysia’s ringgit led a decline among emerging Asian currencies.
“The US rate hike is already a foregone conclusion, it’s just a matter of when,” Ang Kok Heng, chief investment officer at Phillip Capital Management Bhd., which manages $630 million, said in Kuala Lumpur. “China’s market is still uncertain and volatile. Even if it’s a bull market, it’s dominated by retail investors and very sentiment-driven. We are still accumulating stocks and switching some portfolios.”
Bank of the Philippine Islands, the second-biggest lender in terms of assets, lost 1.8 percent to P84.30, while Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., the largest telecommunications firm, dropped 3.6 percent to P2,102.
SM Investments Corp. of retail tycoon Henry Sy retreated 2 percent to P870, while Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, sank 3.5 percent to P4.66.
Bloomberry Resorts Corp., operator of a casino facility on a reclaimed part of Manila Bay, tumbled 6.8 percent to P5.78.
The benchmark Shanghai Composite index remained at a 10-week high, extending gains from the previous day when the market rallied more than four percent on hopes for economic reforms.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index at the Tokyo Stock Exchange closed 1.00 percent up, while the Hang Seng Index in Hong Kong was flat in afternoon trading. With Bloomberg, AFP