Philippine shares closed marginally higher Tuesday in sideways trading due to a lack of catalysts.
The peso also strengthened against the U.S. dollar, closing at 56.35 from 56.685 on Monday.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 8.36 points, or 0.13 percent, to 6,433.60. The broader all-shares index ended at 3,784.17, up 4.24 points, or 0.11 percent.
Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital Development Corp., said the index closed slightly above the 6,420 level ahead of upcoming employment and industrial data.
Easing oil prices in the world market, new trade agreements between the United States and its trading partners, and dovish signals on Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas monetary policy are also boosting investor sentiment.
Most sectors, however, ended lower, with mining and oil, financials, property and industries posting declines.
Services rose 0.77 percent, and holding firms gained 0.66 percent.
Value turnover reached P6.96 billion. Overall market breadth was positive, with 104 gainers and 96 decliners, while 56 shares were unchanged.
Foreign investors were net sellers for the day, with outflows reaching P168.05 million.
Shares of Universal Robina Corp. jumped 4.33 percent to P94. Conversely, the stock price of Monde Nissin Corp. declined 2.04 percent to P7.50.
Asian stocks rose Tuesday as traders cautiously welcomed Donald Trump’s extension of his tariff deadline and indication he could push it back further, though uncertainty over US trade policy capped gains.
Days before the three-month pause on his “Liberation Day” tariffs was set to expire, the US president said he would give governments an extra three weeks to hammer out deals to avoid paying sky-high levies for exports to the world’s biggest economy.
That came as he sent out letters to more than a dozen countries—including top trading partners Japan and South Korea—setting out what he had decided to charge if they did not reach agreements by the new August 1 target date.
Investors tentatively welcomed the delay amid hopes officials will be able to reach deals with Washington, with some observers seeing the latest move by the president as a negotiation tactic.
The letters said Japan and South Korea would be hit with 25 percent tariffs, while Indonesia, Bangladesh, Thailand, South Africa and Malaysia faced duties ranging from 25 percent to 40 percent.
When asked if the new deadline was set in stone, the president said: “I would say firm, but not 100 percent firm.”
And asked whether the letters were his final offer, he replied: “I would say final—but if they call with a different offer, and I like it, then we’ll do it.”
While Wall Street’s three main indexes ended down—with the S&P 500 and Nasdaq back from record highs—Asian markets mostly rose.
Jenniffer B. Austria with AFP
Tokyo and Seoul advanced, while there were also gains in Hong Kong, Shanghai, Wellington, Manila, Jakarta, Mumbai and Singapore. London and Frankfurt all rose at the open, though Paris was flat.
The White House has for weeks said that numerous deals were in the pipeline, with Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claiming Monday that “we are going to have several announcements in the next 48 hours”.
But so far only two have been finalized, with Vietnam and Britain, while China reached a framework to slash eye-watering tit-for-tat levies.
Asia Society Policy Institute vice president Wendy Cutler said the levies on Japan and South Korea “will send a chilling message to others”.
“Both have been close partners on economic security matters,” she said, adding that companies from both countries had made “significant manufacturing investments in the US in recent years”.
For his part, Japan’s Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba said Sunday that he “won’t easily compromise”.
National Australia Bank’s Tapas Strickland said there remained a lot of uncertainty among investors.
“If the agreement with Vietnam is anything to go by, then countries… the US has a trade deficit with look destined to have a 20 percent tariff, and those… the US has a trade surplus with a 10 percent tariff,” he wrote in a commentary.
“That could mean eventual tariff rates settle higher than what the current consensus is, which is broadly for a 10 percent across the board tariff with a higher tariff on China.
“Without further clarity, though, markets will have trouble pricing these different scenarios, especially given Trump’s quick reversal following the market reaction in response to the initial Liberation Day tariffs.” With AFP
