The stock market fell slightly Monday as investors continue to weigh the impact of the extended enhanced community quarantine on the economy.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index shed 14.53 points, or 0.3 percent, to 5,450.45 on a value turnover of P4.1 billion. Losers beat gainers, 112 to 88, withy 32 issues unchanged.
SM Investments Corp. of the Sy Group dropped 4.2 percent to P780, while sister unit BDO Unibank Inc., the biggest lender in terms of assets, declined 3 percent to P97.
Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., the second-largest bank, slipped 3.9 percent to P37.50, but International Container Terminal Services Inc., the biggest port operator and owned by tycoon Enrique Razon Jr., rose 5.1 percent to P82.
The rest of Asian equity markets, meanwhile, rallied Monday as the rate of coronavirus deaths dropped in several badly hit countries and leaders stepped up plans to reopen their economies, though oil prices tumbled again with supply glut fears overshadowing output reductions.
Traders were also keeping a keen eye on meetings of key central banks this week, hoping for further financial support to offset the impact of the pandemic, which is expected to send the world into recession.
But while more than 205,000 people have died from COVID-19 with nearly three million cases recorded, the latest figures from Europe’s worst-hit countries provided some much-needed hope to markets that the peak of the crisis may have passed.
Asian traders welcomed the developments. Tokyo ended 2.7 percent up, while Hong Kong jumped 1.9 percent in late trade.
Taipei and Mumbai put on more than two percent while Sydney, Seoul and Singapore were each more than one percent higher.
Bangkok and Shanghai were also up though there were small losses in Jakarta.
“Although life is not about to return to normal anytime soon, the hope that peak virus is upon us has lifted financial markets modestly in Asia,” said OANDA’s Jeffrey Halley.
“The hopes that even a partial return to regular economic activity, to draw a line under the economic carnage wrought by the pandemic, should see markets such as equities outperform this week.”
Britain’s daily tally was the lowest since March 31, while Italy and Spain’s were the lowest in a month. France’s toll was a drop of more than a third on the previous day’s figures. Germany said Monday it had seen the slowest pace of infections and deaths since March 29.
And the relative improvement in the data has allowed governments to start easing up on lockdowns that have kept half the planet stuck at home.
In Italy, wholesale stores and restaurants will be allowed to resume business on May 4 and people will once again be permitted to stroll in parks and visit relatives, while other shops and museums will open three weeks later.
Spain on Sunday let children play outside for the first time since mid-March and Swiss hairdressers, massage parlours, florists and garden centres will be able to reopen from Monday.
Meanwhile, New York Governor Andrew Cuomo said that a first stage of a reopening would start on May 15 if hospitalizations decrease.
“It is looking well short of a grand reopening in the US, but the fact that some folks are returning to work seems to have piqued the fancy of investors,” said Stephen Innes at AxiCorp. With AFP