The stock market extended a slump Wednesday on profit taking and big losses on Wall Street overnight.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index sank 146.47 points, or 1.6 percent, to 8,764.01 on a value turnover of P11.5 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 142 to 61, with 52 issues unchanged.
SM Investments Corp. of retail tycoon Henry Sy dropped 6 percent to P1,025, while major developer Ayala Land Inc. fell 3 percent to P44.25.
Now Corp., controlled by the Velarde family, plunged 10.3 percent to P5.66. The company last week expressed interest to bid for the third telecommunications slot to challenge the duopoly of PLDT Inc. and Globe Telecom Inc.
LT Group Inc. of tobacco and airline tycoon Lucio Tan slipped 2.2 percent to P22.45.
The rest of Asian stocks, meanwhile, struggled Wednesday as traders tracked sharp Wall Street losses despite a major speech by US President Donald Trump extolling his administration’s economic achievements.
Shanghai finished down 0.2 percent, while Tokyo shed 0.8 percent to extend its losing streak for a sixth straight day.
In Japan, tech firm Fujifilm announced 10,000 job cuts by March 2020 in its Fuji Xerox subsidiary, which it said was facing an “increasingly severe” market environment.
In his annual State of the Union address, Trump said taxes had been slashed, jobs created and “the stock market has smashed one record after another.”
He also struck a conciliatory note, calling for Democrats’ support for a $1.5-trillion investment plan to renew the country’s creaking transport infrastructure.
But despite an initial positive ripple from the address, Asian bourses largely failed to shrug off a strongly negative Wall Street lead, where the Dow on Tuesday posted its largest decline since May.
In his speech Trump also called for “fair” trade and declared that “the era of economic surrender is over.”
Although he did not name any country, Trump has often hit out at what he calls unfair practices in Asia, accusing Beijing of killing US jobs and recently angering China and South Korea with new tariffs on solar panels and large washing machines.
“America has also finally turned the page on decades of unfair trade deals that sacrificed our prosperity and shipped away our companies, our jobs, and our wealth—our nation has lost its wealth but we’re getting it back so fast,” said Trump.
The dollar continued its recent slide following Trump’s speech, which failed to clear up last week’s confusion triggered by comments from the US treasury secretary that appeared to favor a weak greenback.
The Asian declines meant that, despite an overall upbeat January for equities, this week’s share sell-off continued into a third day.
Asian investors have locked in profits at the month-end and ahead of a series of key earnings reports and policy announcements.
Bearish sentiment was compounded by weak Chinese manufacturing data. Factory figures for January came in below expectations, hampered by crackdowns on debt and pollution levels. With AFP
