The stock market fell Thursday, joining a global sell-off on concerns over Turkey’s financial crisis.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index dropped 23.56 points, or 0.3 percent, to 7,517.36 on a value turnover of P5.4 billion. Losers beat gainers, 108 to 91, with 49 issues unchanged.
Casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. lost 2.1 percent to P9.50, while GT Capital Holdings Inc. of tycoon George Ty declined 2.3 percent to P889.
Jollibee Foods Corp., the biggest fast-food chain, fell 2.6 percent to P266.80, while International Container Terminal Services Inc., the largest port operator, decreased 2.7 percent to P87.05.
The rest Asia stocks drifted lower Thursday, although they clawed back some ground on news that China and the United States would hold trade talks.
Equities across the region suffered steep losses at the opening bell, with Tokyo and Shanghai off by more than one percent, dragged down by a weak session on Wall Street as traders fretted over possible contagion from Turkey’s currency crisis.
Japan’s main Nikkei 225 index shed 1.20 percent in early trade and China’s benchmark Shanghai Composite opened weaker by 1.17 percent after another day of volatile trading driven by Turkey.
But surprising news that the world’s top two economies would hold talks in a bid to bury the trade hatchet dented investors’ pessimism and even pushed some Asian markets into the green.
China’s Vice Commerce Minister Wang Shouwen, the deputy representative on international trade negotiations, will meet senior US treasury official David Malpass at Washington’s invitation, the ministry in Beijing said in a statement.
Traders saw a glimmer of hope of a detente in the ongoing trade battle that has seen the two sides hit each other with reciprocal tariffs on goods worth $34 billion, with much more threatened.
Washington and Beijing plan to launch a new round of tariffs on $16 billion worth of goods from each country on August 23.
“It is hard to tell how the talks will go but it’s a positive signal that the two countries are looking for some compromise plan,” said Makoto Sengoku, market analyst at Tokai Tokyo Research Institute.
“If they were determined to fight it out, they wouldn’t meet.”
After a see-saw session, the Nikkei 225 closed down 0.05 percent to end at 22,192.04 while the wider Topix index was down slightly more, losing 0.64 percent.
In the final hours of trade, Hong Kong was down 0.6 percent while Shanghai was 0.3 percent lower.
Despite the positive news of US-China talks, nervousness over the Turkish currency crisis lingered in the background and kept bulls on the back foot.
On Wednesday, Ankara hiked tariffs on imports of several US goods in retaliation to American sanctions, the latest step in a tit-for-tat spat between the two NATO allies that shows little sign of easing.
The crisis has sent the Turkish currency into free fall and sparked concerns that European banks and other emerging markets exposed to the unit could also suffer. With AFP