The stock market fell Friday along with the rest of Asia, as traders digested hawkish comments from US President Donald Trump on a brewing trade war and with an eye on all-important US jobs data due out later in the day.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index slumped 76.50 points, or 1 percent, to 7,945.66 on a value turnover of P7.6 billion. Losers beat gainers, 130 to 80, with 40 issues unchanged.
Universal Robina Corp., the biggest snack food maker, tumbled 4.7 percent to P143, while parent JG Summit Holdings Inc. dropped 2.4 percent to P62.30. BDO Unibank Inc., the largest lender in terms of assets, declined 3 percent to P134.60.
Casino operator Bloomberry Resorts Corp. advanced 3.5 percent to P13.50.
Tokyo, meanwhile, finished in the red after opening higher, losing 0.4 percent while Seoul and Sydney also ended in negative territory.
Hong Kong outperformed its regional peers and was up one percent in afternoon trade, with the market playing catch-up after being closed on Thursday. Shanghai was closed.
Shinichi Yamamoto, a broker at Okasan Securities in Tokyo, told AFP “trading was thin as players were on the sidelines ahead of US jobs data to be released later in the day.”
Market players scrutinize the monthly jobs report from the US Department of Labor for clues on Federal Reserve monetary policy.
The benchmark Nikkei 225 index lost 0.36 percent, or 77.90 points, to close at 21,567.52. Over the week, it gained 0.53 percent.
The broader Topix index was down 0.31 percent, or 5.31 points, at 1,719.30 but marked a weekly gain of 0.17 percent.
Tokyo shares opened higher as a weak yen—a positive factor for Japanese exporters—boosted market sentiment.
But investors started cashing in profits in afternoon trade, pushing the bellwether Nikkei index into negative territory, brokers said.
“The fact that early gains were easily erased showed that the Tokyo market has yet to be on course to a steady recovery,” said Shinichi Yamamoto, broker at Okasan Securities in Tokyo.
“Trading was thin as players were on the sidelines ahead of US jobs data to be released later in the day,” Yamamoto told AFP.
The Asian session followed a positive day for stocks in the US and Europe, with Wall Street closing higher for the third straight day, as investors’ fears over a full-blown US-China trade war eased.
However, officials from the world’s two largest economies traded fresh blows on Friday, reigniting concerns that a damaging trade war could be in the offing.
Trump ratcheted up the rhetoric against China, saying he had instructed trade officials to “consider whether $100 billion of additional tariffs would be appropriate.”
The US leader has already asked for $50 billion worth of Chinese goods to be punitively taxed, which has sparked a formal challenge from Beijing at the World Trade Organization.
China hit back, with the commerce ministry saying it would “take them on until the end at any cost.”
Beijing has also unveiled plans for painful import duties targeting politically-sensitive US exports, including soybeans, aircraft and autos. With AFP