The stock market dropped Friday as a worldwide sell-off triggered by US President Donald Trump doubling down on his North Korea rhetoric showed no sign of abating.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 37.82 points, or 0.5 percent, to 7,928.43 on a value turnover of P5.5 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 144 to 54, with 52 issues unchanged.
Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp., the shipping company of businessman Dennis Uy, slumped 4.1 percent to P9.58, the third straight day it declined, since its debut in the market Tuesday.
D&L Industries Inc. lost 2.5 percent to P10.26, while Ayala Land Inc., a major property developer, declined 1.3 percent to P41.95.
Security Bank Corp., the fifth largest lender in terms of assets, rose 3.3 percent to P252.
The rest of Asian equities extended heavy losses Friday while European markets slid in early trade after Wall Street indices suffered their biggest losses in nearly three months Thursday. The dollar struggled to recover from eight-week lows below 109 yen as investors fled to safe haven assets.
Traders across the globe reacted with dismay to Trump’s warning Thursday that his earlier threat to unleash “fire and fury” on the reclusive nuclear-armed state may not have been “tough enough.”
With Japanese markets closed for a public holiday, Hong Kong led the downward charge in Asia-Pacific as the Hang Seng lost more than two percent.
The index was also dragged lower after Beijing ordered probes into three major Chinese social networking platforms over outlawed content.
Shanghai posted its biggest one-day drop since December while Seoul stocks again ended deep in negative territory and the won continued its slide against the dollar.
“Risk-off sentiment dominates Asian markets into the end of the week with President Donald Trump’s words still sending shockwaves into the markets,” said Jingyi Pan, market strategist at online trader IG.
Singapore’s DBS bank added in a statement that the yen “remains the safe haven currency from the saber-rattling between US President Donald Trump and North Korea”.
Gold, another classic safe haven asset, was trading at around $1,285 per ounce, up more than two percent this week and near a nine-week high.
Analysts warned the softening dollar could test June’s low of 108.82 yen and even the 2017 trough of 108.13 yen.
The greenback also came under pressure after New York Federal Reserve President William Dudley cautioned it would “take some time” for US inflation to reach the bank’s two percent target, the latest warning price pressures remain muted.
US producer prices Thursday disappointed, as traders await consumer price inflation figures later Friday.
“Both (PPI measures) were well below consensus and give us no hope that consumer price inflation is going to materially beat expectations,” said Chris Weston, chief market strategist at IG Markets.
However, market watchers said equity markets remained focused on the deepening geopolitical crisis, as angry threats from Washington and Pyongyang stoke fears of a catastrophic miscalculation with global consequences.