The stock market closed flat Thursday before the meeting of the Monetary Board later in the day when it reduced interest rates by 25 basis points.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index slipped 3.23 points, or 0.04 percent, to 7,914.16 on a value turnover of P6.2 billion. Gainers, however, beat losers, 103 to 91, with 45 issues unchanged.
Investors also shrugged off the gross domestic product figures in the second quarter released by the Philippine Statistics Authority earlier in the day.
The economy grew 5.5 percent in the second quarter, the slowest in four years, as the prolonged El Niño dry spell, delayed approval of the government budget and ban on construction activities during the mid-term elections tempered demand and spending.
Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, fell 5.9 percent to P5.75, but PLDT Inc., the largest telecommunications firm, advanced 6.8 percent to P1,164.
Casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. of tycoon Enrique Razon Jr. climbed 6.2 percent to P11.90, while International Container Terminal Services Inc., the biggest port operator and also owned by Razon, rose 3.2 percent to P130.
The rest of Asian markets rose Thursday on bargain-hunting by investors following a week of heavy losses due to anxiety over the deepening US-China trade war.
But tensions remained high, prompting a rush on safe-haven assets such as bonds, gold and the Japanese yen.
Bond yields plunged on Wednesday as prices climbed, with the benchmark US government 10-year note dropping to multi-year lows, while French and German bond yields, already in negative territory, set new record lows.
In Tokyo, the Nikkei gained 0.4 percent, after shedding more than 1,000 points in a four-day losing streak.
But investors stayed away from active buying with the yen remaining strong, raising worries for Japanese exporters’ earnings and the impact on their repatriated profits.
Shanghai also climbed 0.9 percent, enjoying a boost after global index complier MSCI announced it would increase the weighting of Chinese shares in its indices from 10 to 15 percent from late August.
Hong Kong rose 0.7 percent while Seoul added 0.6 percent. Sydney gained 0.8 percent but Singapore dropped 0.4 percent.
Equities had tumbled Monday after Beijing allowed the yuan to slide sharply against the dollar following US President Donald Trump’s announcement that he would impose 10 percent tariffs on another $300 billion in Chinese goods starting September 1.
But Beijing’s move to stabilize the yuan after both onshore and offshore rates dropped below the key 7.0 per dollar threshold helped to ease investor fears.
Even though the central bank set the currency’s central parity rate above 7.0 for the first time in 11 years on Thursday, analysts were unruffled, saying the yuan fix was stronger than expected.
“The fact that it’s only gone through 7 today and it didn’t on Tuesday really tells you that they are signaling to the market that we don’t want the currency to depreciate too quickly,” said Julian Evans-Pritchard, senior China economist at Capital Economics. With AFP
