The stock market rose Thursday on bargain hunting but some investors moved cautiously on conflicting reports about the outlook for upcoming China-US trade talks.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index climbed 83.78 points, or 1.1 percent, to 7,765.03 on a value turnover of P14.4 billion. Gainers beat losers, 93 to 78, with 53 issues unchanged.
Security Bank Corp., the sixth-biggest lender in terms of assets, advanced 4.2 percent to P199, while First Gen Corp. of the Lopez Group gained 3.9 percent to P25.05.
Robinsons Land Corp., the property unit of industrialist John Gokongwei, rose 3.9 percent to P25.50, while AllHome Corp. of the Villar Group edged higher at P11.56 from its initial public offering price of P11.50.
The rest of Asian markets were mixed Thursday. Global investors have been broadly upbeat in recent weeks that the meeting in Washington between top-level representatives would see at least some progress.
But with the much-anticipated gathering due to start within hours, Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post reported pre-meeting discussions had not made any progress on key areas such as forced technology transfers, and that the meet would be cut in half to just one day.
That came after Wall Street’s three main indexes ended with healthy gains on reports that a pared-down deal was still possible, with Beijing boosting agricultural purchases and Washington delaying the imposition of new tariffs next week.
Tensions were already showing this week after the US unveiled restrictions on 28 Chinese entities over human rights violations in Xinjiang and imposed visa restrictions on some officials, while a report said the White House was considering curtailing American investment in the country.
For its part, sources were reported to have said China had narrowed the issues it was willing to discuss as it felt in a stronger position owing to Donald Trump facing an impeachment inquiry at home and a weakening economy.
The SCMP report “reverses the trade optimism that was dominating overnight flow as investors were hoping that at minimum, some type of a deal could be forged,” said Stephen Innes, Asia-Pacific market strategist at AxiTrader.
“So instead of debating how encompassing the deal might be, investors are now back to plucking petals from a flower guessing if there will be a deal at all.”
On regional markets, Hong Kong edged up 0.1 percent while Tokyo finished 0.5 percent higher and Shanghai put on 0.8 percent.
But Seoul shed 0.8 percent, Singapore eased 0.4 percent, Mumbai dropped 0.8 percent and Bangkok fell 0.5 percent. Sydney and Jakarta were flat.
In foreign exchange markets, the dollar was lower against most other currencies after minutes from the Federal Reserve’s September policy meeting showed it was growing concerned about the impact of Trump’s trade war.
The central bank is expected to cut interest rates for a third time when the board meets again later this month. With AFP