Stock market drops; Globe gains

The stock market slipped Wednesday as investors took a step back on profit taking after recent gains.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index dropped 21.48 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,933.76 on a value turnover of P4.7 billion. Losers edged gainers, 91 to 82, with 61 issues unchanged.

Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which is into toll roads, water and power generation, hospitals snd infrastructure, fell 1.8 percent to 4.90, while BDO Unibank Inc., the biggest lender in terms of assets, lost 1.1 percent to P146.80.

AC Energy Philippines, owned by the Ayala Group, however, rose 2.9 percent to P2.83, while Globe Telecom Inc., the second largest telecommunications firm, added 1.3 percent to P1,920.

The pound, meanwhile, clawed back earlier losses Wednesday in Asia after Boris Johnson’s failure to push through his Brexit deal fueled fresh uncertainty, while regional equities ticked lower.

Shanghai slipped 0.4 percent and Hong Kong was down 0.8 percent, with traders keeping tabs on reactions to a Financial Times report saying China was drawing up a plan to remove the city’s beleaguered chief executive after nearly five months of pro-democracy unrest.

Singapore fell 0.6 percent and Seoul was off 0.4 percent, while Taipei and Jakarta were also in the red.

Wellington tumbled more than two percent, with energy firms battered by worries about electricity prices after Rio Tinto said it was considering closing a power-guzzling aluminium smelter, potentially leaving the country awash with excess capacity.

Also, major construction firm Fletcher Building fell as a massive fire hit a US$450 million convention centre it is building in the middle of Auckland.

But Tokyo edged up 0.3 percent, while Mumbai and Jakarta also rose while Sydney was flat.

With everything quiet on the China-US trade talks, attention was on Westminster where Britain’s prime minister finally got MPs to agree to his EU divorce pact, but minutes later lost a vote on a truncated debate that would have passed it in just three days.

The news means Johnson is unlikely to fulfill his pledge of leaving the European Union by the October 31 deadline, and raises the possibility of his calling a general election before the end of the year.

EU chiefs are now expected to recommend another extension to the withdrawal date, which analysts said the PM would blame on opposition lawmakers in the event of a national poll.

The prospect of another delay hit sterling, which briefly fell as low as $1.2841 on Wednesday before bouncing back as European business started.

The unit had earlier this week broken $1.30 for the first time in five months on hopes of averting a painful no-deal divorce. It was also lower against the euro. London’s FTSE index started down 0.1 percent.

“Getting a revised withdrawal agreement to this point and winning with a convincing margin… is an extraordinary achievement,” said Stephen Innes, senior market analyst at AxiTrader.

“But with parliament rejecting PM Johnson’s truncated timetable in favor of more time to debate the bill, it now means members will give the statute the fine-tooth comb treatment, opening it to more criticism suggesting it could be knocked down later.” With AFP