The stock market tumbled Wednesday on profit-taking and a brewing tension in Kashmir after Pakistan said it had shot down two Indian jets in its airspace in the region.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index sank 99.04 points, or 1.2 percent, to 7,889.12 on a value turnover of P7.4 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 123 to 69, with 63 issues unchanged.
PLDT Inc., the biggest telecommunications firm, declined 4.4 percent to P1,050, while conglomerate San Miguel Corp. fell 4.4 percent to P172.
Jollibee Foods Corp., the largest fast-food chain, dropped 2.2 percent to P308, while JG Summit Holdings Inc. of industrialist John Gokongwei also lost 2.2 percent to P68.
The rest of Asian markets were mixed Wednesday as an earlier rally had the wind taken out of it after Pakistan said it had shot down two Indian jets in its airspace in Kashmir, fueling concerns of conflict between the nuclear-armed rivals.
Regional investors had been in a broadly upbeat mood owing to optimism about a China-US trade deal, a dovish outlook on monetary policy from Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell and easing Brexit worries.
But trading floors were shaken in the afternoon by a statement from the Pakistan Air Force that it had downed the two planes and arrested one of the pilots.
That came as Indian sources said Pakistani fighter jets had violated airspace over Indian Kashmir, but were forced back over the de facto border of the disputed territory.
The developments came a day after warplanes struck a site in Pakistan that New Delhi said was a militant training camp, in retaliation for a February 14 suicide bombing in the disputed region that that killed 40 Indian troops.
Islamabad had vowed to retaliate”•fueling fears of a dangerous confrontation.
“This is unprecedented territory, we haven’t had tit-for-tat air strikes between India and Pakistan since the 1971 war,” Anit Mukherjee, a former Indian Army major and assistant professor at the S. Rajaratnam School of International Studies in Singapore, told Bloomberg News.
“We don’t know what will come from this. But it seems like Pakistan has given a response. And there have been casualties”•captures, deaths.”
Markets fell sharply on the reports but managed to claw back some of the losses.
Mumbai was down 0.4 percent while the rupee was down a similar amount. The Karachi Stock Exchange sank almost three percent.
Shanghai ended up 0.4 percent, having plunged deep into negative territory, though Hong Kong was struggling to get back into the green.
Tokyo, which closed before news of the jet downings filtered through, was up 0.5 percent, though Singapore was 0.1 percent lower.
Sydney added 0.4 percent, Taipei was flat and Wellington was off 0.5 percent.
Hopes that Britain will not leave the European Union without a divorce pact in place had provided some support to markets and the pound in particular.
Sterling held its own in Asia a day after surging more than one percent on Prime Minister Theresa May’s decision to let MPs vote on a three-month delay to the March 29 Brexit deadline if she is unable to ram through her own deal. With AFP