Stocks fell Friday, amid a global debt selloff as investors weighed prospects for further monetary easing in Europe and Japan and as US traders expressed concern over increased number of killings in the Philippines.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index, the 30-company benchmark, shed 85 points, or 1.1 percent, to close at 7,581.79 Friday. This trimmed the market’s gains since the start of the year to 9.1 percent.
The broader all-share index also tumbled 31 points, or 0.7 percent, to settle at 4,534.34, on a value turnover of P10 billion. Losers outnumbered advancers, 109 to 88, while 45 issues were unchanged.
Eight of the 20 most active stocks ended in the green, led by food exporter Alliance Select Foods International Inc. which surged 50 percent to P1.35. The company earlier said the syndicated estafa and falsification of public documents charges filed by a former director against the management were dismissed.
Megawide Construction Corp., a builder and airport operator, climbed 9.9 percent to P15.80, while Security Bank Corp. rose 7.6 percent to P248.
Jollibee Foods Corp. fell 4.5 percent to P236, while PLDT Inc. lost 3.7 percent to P1,800.
The American Chamber of Commerce in the Philippines said President Rodrigo Duterte’s brutal drugs war and foul-mouthed tirades were damaging investor sentiment.
The “increased number of killings during the heightened anti-drug campaign is harming the country’s image… some investors are now asking whether this campaign reduces the rule of law,” the chamber said in a statement sent to AFP Friday.
Meanwhile, South Korean stocks and the won led most Asian markets lower Friday after the North conducted another nuclear test, while trading was also hit by worries over global central bank policy easing.
Pyongyang said it had conducted a “successful” fifth nuclear test, which South Korea said was its largest-ever.
The news intensified worries about geopolitical tensions in the region as world powers including China struggle to rein in Pyongyang’s erratic behavior.
Seoul’s KOSPI was down 1.5 percent in the afternoon while a Bank of Korea decision not to cut interest rates was unable to prevent the won sinking almost one percent early on, before it edged back slightly. With AFP, Bloomberg