The stock market closed virtually flat Friday on mixed trading as investors opted to stay on the sidelines ahead of next week’s government report on the August inflation rate.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index minimally gained 2.55 points, or 0.03 percent, to 7,855.71 on a value turnover of P8 billion. Losers, however, beat gainers, 107 to 91, with 46 issues unchanged.
Private economists expect inflation to peak to 5.9 percent in August from 5.7 percent in July after intermittent weather disturbances affected food prices during the month.
Economists from First Metro Investment Corp. and University of Asia & the Pacific earlier expressed optimism that once it hit the peak in August, inflation would decelerate in the succeeding months.
“Headline inflation will peak in August given the heavy rains and flooding during the month,” FMIC and UA&P said in their monthly ‘Market Call’ report.
San Miguel Food and Beverage Inc., a unit of conglomerate San Miguel Corp., advanced 5.3 percent to P99, while casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. climbed 3.1 percent to P9.55.
Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, fell 2.1 percent to P4.59, while Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., the second largest lender in terms of assets, slipped 1.2 percent to P73.25.
Meanwhile, emerging market currencies sank in Asia on Friday, with the Indian rupee at a record low as dealers fear contagion from financial crises in Argentina and Turkey.
A report that Donald Trump is planning to impose tariffs on a further $200 billion of Chinese imports as soon as next week has added to the fright on trading floors, with most equity markets across the region also down.
All three major Wall Street indexes ended down, with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq ending a streak of four straight days of records.
Tokyo ended marginally lower, while Hong Kong sank one percent and Shanghai lost 0.5 percent. A better-than-forecast reading on Chinese manufacturing activity was unable to lift the gloom.
Sydney fell 0.5 percent, while Singapore was off 0.2 percent. Wellington, Taipei, Manila and Jakarta were also sharply lower but Seoul rose 0.7 percent.
Forex traders have been dumping emerging market currencies after Argentina’s peso became the latest to hit the buffers on concerns about the country’s economy.
The peso hit a record low near 40 to the dollar Thursday despite the central bank hiking interest rates 15 percentage points to 60 percent. It has lost 53 percent of its value since the start of the year as the government of President Mauricio Macri faces a financial catastrophe.
At the same time Turkey’s lira continues to face heavy selling after a deputy central bank governor resigned with the economy facing a possible recession, made worse by US sanctions. The currency has also lost about half its value this year.
The flight out of emerging market units hit India, where the rupee fell to 71 against the dollar for the first time on Friday. The embattled currency has has lost about 10 percent this year.
And the Indonesian rupiah also dived, briefly hitting the 14,750 to the dollar mark seen during the Asian financial crisis in 1998. With AFP
