The stock market extended its drop Thursday, after a below-par US jobs report compounded worries about the world’s top economy, while the World Trade Organization fanned fresh trade war fears by allowing Washington to impose tariffs on the European Union.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index fell 65.13 points, or 0.9 percent, to 7,545.55 on a value turnover of P8.3 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 141 to 42, with 58 issues unchanged.
Major property developer Ayala land Inc. slumped 4.3 percent to P45, while Metro Pacific Investments Corp., which is into toll roads, water and electricity distribution, hospitals and infrastructure, declined 2.3 percent to P4.72.
Universal Robina Corp., the biggest snack food maker, however, advanced 5.4 percent to P152.90, while International Container Terminal Services Inc., the largest port operator, climbed 4.4 percent to P120.60.
The rest of Asian markets tanked Thursday.
Investors tracked yet another plunge in Europe and on Wall Street—where all three main indexes fell more than one percent for a second day—and shifted into safer assets such as gold which rose more than one percent.
Asian equity markets were all deep in the red. Tokyo ended two percent lower while Sydney shed more than two percent, Wellington lost 1.2 percent and Hong Kong was down 0.4 percent.
Singapore shed 0.8 percent, Taipei eased 0.7 percent, and Mumbai and Jakarta were also lower. Shanghai and Seoul were closed for holidays.
On Wednesday data from payrolls firm ADP showed US companies added far fewer jobs than expected last month, while August’s reading was also revised sharply lower. That followed news of the weakest US manufacturing conditions since 2009 at the height of the financial crisis.
The figures also come before the release of non-farm payrolls data Friday that are closely watched for a gauge on the health of the economy, with observers now fretting that a slowdown across the world could now be biting in the United States.
New York traders rushed for the exit, as did their European counterparts who were also hammered by fears Britain will leave the EU without a divorce deal as well as increasingly bleak economic data in the region.
“The market was still digesting the weaker (factory) data and the implication for global growth then got whacked with the slide on the ADP data compounded by a catastrophic decline in US auto sales, which now raises more questions than answers about the resilience of the US consumer,” said Stephen Innes, Asia-Pacific market strategist at AxiTrader.
Hopes for a China-US trade breakthrough “could keep the risk-on light flickering, but the dreary economic data does perhaps suggest that traders could be better sellers in this risk-toxic environment”, he added.
Just as Washington and Beijing prepare for high-level trade talks this month, the World Trade Organization provided markets with a fresh headache by ruling that the EU had given illegal support to plane-maker Airbus, allowing the US to impose billions in tariffs on the bloc. With AFP
Washington later announced a series of levies starting on October 18. With AFP
