The stock market jumped Wednesday on bargain-hunting after a big drop in the previous day, with select blue chips leading the rally.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index surged 100.12 points, or 1.3 percent, to 7,847.50 on a value turnover of P8.4 billion. Gainers beat losers, 118 to 83, with 47 issues unchanged.
Now Corp., a telecommunications owned by the Velarde family, advanced 6.6 percent to P3.40, while Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, climbed 4.2 percent to P5.01.
Conglomerate JG Summit Holdings Inc. of industrialist John Gokongwei rose 3.7 percent to P68.90, while Security Bank Corp., the sixth-larges lender in terms of assets, gained 3.6 percent to P193.
The rest of Asian markets swung Wednesday, gripped by uncertainty over the China-US trade talks, with warnings that Donald Trump’s unpredictability could be harming the chances of an eventual agreement.
Tokyo ended 0.1 percent higher, Seoul was 0.9 percent up and Sydney rose 0.5 percent, with gains also in Taipei, Wellington and Jakarta.
But Shanghai ended down 0.3 percent, Hong Kong and Singapore each shed 0.1 percent in the afternoon and Mumbai dropped 0.4 percent.
Trading has been volatile this week after the US president’s weekend outburst against Beijing and announcement of more tariffs on $550 billion of goods were followed Monday by him saying the two sides had spoken by phone, and negotiations would resume soon.
China, however, has not confirmed any calls took place, while media in the country have played down the chances of more talks or the leadership’s need for a deal.
The developments are the latest in a series of moves by the White House that have seen it slam China before holding out an olive branch.
Analysts say traders are growing uneasy with the strategy.
Stephen Innes at Valour Markets said: “There remains a high degree of skepticism regarding the sincerity of Trump’s comments or even if the Chinese are willing to recommence negotiations.”
He pointed out that an inflammatory tweet on Friday in which Trump labelled Federal Reserve boss Jerome Powell and China’s Xi Jinping enemies of the US had resonated among traders.
“Risk-off remains in vogue as trade disputes continue to flare, suggesting any risk assets recovery will remain extremely fragile.”
Michael Hewson, chief market analyst at CMC Markets UK, added: “Quite simply last Friday’s events appear to have done significant damage to investor appetite towards risk, and as such the bar to a turnaround is likely to be on the high side.
“It’s not difficult to understand investor reticence in this regard, with the frequent twitter interventions by President Trump going a long way to undermine confidence in the reliability of the US position on trade, with Friday’s events likely to have been a tipping point for some.”
The editor of the state-run Global Times said in a tweet that Beijing was “not putting so much emphasis on trade talks,” instead focusing on boosting the economy, and it was becoming tougher for the US to apply pressure. With AFP