Philippine stocks snapped a four-day winning streak on profit-taking, after the peso tumbled to a record low of 59.0 against the US dollar Thursday.
“The peso’s weakness against the US dollar, now nearing the 59.00 mark, weighed on the bourse,” Philstocks Financial Inc. research head Japhet Tantiangco said.
Data from the Bankers Association of the Philippines show that the peso closed at 59 against the greenback, down from 58.91 Wednesday.
Dovish statements from the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas that a new interest rate cut is possible in December weighed on the local currency. Investors sought safe haven in the dollar after the BSP reduced its key interest rates by 50 basis points this year.
The weak peso also affected investor sentiment in the equities market. The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 112.62 points, or 1.61 percent, to close at 6,863.01.
The broader all-shares index went down by 38.02 points, or 0.99 percent, to settle at 3,809.39.
Analysts said investors were worried about the peso approaching a record low. Trading was tepid, with net value turnover reaching P4.36 billion.
Foreigners were net sellers, with net outflows amounting to P481,000.
Amongst the six sectors, only the services closed in the positive territory, rising 0.70 percent. The holding firms booked the most losses, declining 2.83 percent, followed by property which declined 2.19 percent.
Losers edged gainers, 111 to 86.
International Container Terminal Services Inc. was the top index gainer, gaining 2.26 percent to P408, while SM Investments Corp. was at the bottom, falling 5.78 percent to P904.
Meanwhile, shares in Indian conglomerate Adani tanked on Thursday after its industrialist owner Gautam Adani was charged by US prosecutors with handing out more than $250 million in bribes for key contracts.
The painful losses at units of the Adani Group came as markets in most of Asia retreated as blockbuster earnings from chip titan Nvidia smashed forecasts but fell short of investor hopes, while bitcoin hit another record as it pushes towards the $100,000 mark.
Several listed subsidiaries of the Adani empire, which spans coal, airports, cement and media, collapsed in early trade, with some losing as much as 20 percent.
The charges are another blow to the firm, which was sent reeling last year when a bombshell report from US investment firm Hindenburg Research claimed the conglomerate had engaged in a “brazen stock manipulation and accounting fraud scheme over the course of decades”.
The Adani Group on Thursday called the allegations “baseless”.
The conglomerate’s flagship Adani Enterprises dived almost 20 percent, while several of its subsidiaries lost between 10 and 20 percent.
However, Mumbai’s Sensex index saw more limited losses, giving up around 0.6 percent.
All eyes had been on the release from Nvidia, which has been at the forefront of a global tech surge that has helped push some markets to multiple records owing to voracious demand for all things linked to artificial intelligence.
And once again, the firm topped expectations, announcing Wednesday that it made a $19 billion profit on record high revenue in the July-September quarter, while sales reached $35.1 billion — about $2 billion more than estimated.
However, its shares fell in after-hours trade, even as chief executive Jensen Huang declared that the “age of AI is in full steam, propelling a global shift to Nvidia computing” and that its keenly anticipated Blackwell processing platform is in full production.
Observers said investors had been hoping for an even bigger blowout report, with Bloomberg saying some had been hoping for sales of as much as $41 billion.
Its shares — which have soared more than 200 percent year to date — dropped four percent at one point after-hours.
With Nvidia now the world’s most expensive listed company, its results have become a bellwether of the tech industry.
“I have a feeling we’ve reached peak Nvidia,” said Pendal Group’s Amy Xie Patrick on Bloomberg Television. “This is a stock that beat analyst estimates but didn’t beat enough.”
And SPI Asset Management’s Stephen Innes added: “The bigger question remains: where exactly is the bar for Nvidia now? With expectations veiled in sky-high optimism, even seasoned analysts struggle to get a clear read.
“With so many portfolios already brimming with Nvidia stock, some investors might see this quarter’s results as a minor letdown.”
But he added: “Still, the strength of the numbers, paired with the pipeline of Blackwell chip orders, is enough to keep the dream alive.”
Most markets in Asia fell, with Tokyo, Hong Kong, Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Jakarta, Taipei, Bangkok and Manila in negative territory.
Still, Shanghai and Wellington rose.
London, Frankfurt and Paris all rose.
Bitcoin topped out at $97,892 as it continued its march to the $100,000 mark on expectations Donald Trump will push through measures to ease regulations on cryptocurrencies. It has surged around 40 percent since the US election at the start of the month.
Investors have also been spooked by developments in the Ukraine war after Russia said Kyiv had fired US-supplied missiles into the country. That was followed by reports that UK-supplied rockets had also been used.
Traders are also keeping watch on Trump’s picks for his cabinet, with the fingering of China hawk Howard Lutnick for commerce secretary fueling worries of another painful trade war. With AFP
