The stock market closed nearly flat Monday on consolidation, ignoring another strong lead from Wall Street over the weekend, where the S&P 500 and Nasdaq chalked up fresh records on expectations of strong sales on Black Friday and Cyber Monday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 3.42 points, or 0.04 percent, to 8,361.69 on a value turnover of P6.3 billion. Losers beat gainers, 102 to 96, with 46 issues unchanged.
Manila Electric Co., the biggest retailer of electricity, dropped P2, or 0.6 percent, to P317 on profit-taking, while SM Investments Corp. of retail tycoon Henry Sy Sr., lost 1.4 percent to P970. Manila Water Co. Inc., which distributes water in the western zone of Metro Manila, declined 2.6 percent to P28.05.
Cemex Holdings Philippines Inc., a major cement producer, rallied 8.8 percent to P4.47
The rest of Asian markets fell Monday after last week’s volatility, but the euro held on to gains thanks to healthy economic data and hopes that German Chancellor Angela Merkel is close to forming a government.
With little to drive buying on Monday, Asian profit-takers sold up, with eyes on the release of key data in major economies this week—from China to the United States.
Shanghai slipped almost one percent, with dealers still on edge after Thursday’s sharp losses fueled by concerns about a crackdown on speculative trading.
Hong Kong was down 0.6 percent, while Tokyo closed 0.2 percent lower. Seoul shed 1.4 percent, dragged down by Samsung Electronics’ more than five percent slump in response to Morgan Stanley’s decision to cut its price recommendation for the firm.
Singapore lost 0.2 percent and Taipei retreated one percent, but Sydney edged up 0.1 percent while Wellington put on 0.6 percent.
In currency trading the euro stood firm against the dollar, after surging on Friday in reaction to healthy economic data. A gauge of the German business climate hit an all-time high in November despite political uncertainty.
There are also hopes Merkel can hammer out a deal to form a new government for Europe’s biggest economy.
The Social Democrats said they were ready to hold talks with the chancellor, who is facing pressure to reach an agreement to end weeks of turmoil.
The euro plunged last week after talks to form a new government with the pro-business Free Democrats and the left-leaning Greens broke down, raising the prospect of fresh elections.
Adding to the upbeat euro sentiment were last week’s dovish Federal Reserve minutes that have led some traders to lower their expectations on the pace of US interest rate rises, while the European Central Bank is looking more bullish.
“Too many positive developments to ignore suggests the market will set sights on the $1.2000 level,” Stephen Innes, head of Asia-Pacific trading at OANDA, said in a commentary.
“The market continues to underprice the ECB risk, but with the recent string of uproarious EU economic data, surely this will be too difficult for the ECB to ignore, and at minimum moderate their ‘lower for longer’ stance in spite of inflation undershooting expectations.” With AFP
