Stocks fell Tuesday, as low oil prices dented sentiment and Asian investors awaited Japanese premier Shinzo Abe’s announcement on details of the government’s massive stimulus program.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, shed 32 points, or 0.4 percent, to close at 8,037.48. Despite the loss, the bellwether was still up 15.6 percent since the start of the year.
The heavier index, representing all shares, also retreated 30 points, or 0.6 percent, to settle at 4,761.17, on a value turnover of P7.3 billion.
Ten of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by BDO Unibank Inc. which fell 2 percent to P117 and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. which advanced 1.3 percent to P96.50.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. fell 8.2 percent to P1,962, after announcing that profit slid 33 percent in the first half to P12.46 billion from a year ago.
Meanwhile, most Asian stocks also traded lower Tuesday. Crude prices rebounded modestly in Asian trade, but were still hovering around three-month lows of around $40 a barrel a day after slipping into a bear market, taking the wind out of energy and commodity-linked shares.
Abe is expected later Tuesday to offer some specifics on the whopping 28 trillion yen ($273 billion) fiscal package announced last week to kickstart the world’s number-three economy.
At the lunch break, Tokyo’s benchmark Nikkei 225 index was down 0.7 percent, while Sydney edged 0.4 percent lower and Seoul fell 0.5 percent.
Shanghai ticked up 0.2 percent after opening in the red, but Taipei and Singapore were lower.
Hong Kong’s stock exchange was shuttered as Typhoon Nida slammed the city with violent winds and torrential rain.
Oil’s decline “will probably weigh on sentiment a little bit and we may see some risk-off moves associated with that,” James Woods, a strategist at Rivkin Securities in Sydney, told Bloomberg News.
“We’ll have an update from Shinzo Abe in Japan today, just running through the measures of the 28 trillion yen stimulus package. It’s really what’s going to dictate risk sentiment.” With AFP, Bloomberg
