The stock market slipped Thursday, unable to recover from a rout this week on higher-than-expected US inflation data.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index lost 7.19 points, or 0.1 percent, to 6,575.67 on a value turnover of P5.5 billion. Gainers, however, beat losers, 90 to 74, with 51 issues unchanged.
BDO Unibank Inc. of the Sy Group, the biggest lender in terms of assets, dropped 2.1 percent to P122.50, while parent SM Investments Corp. fell 1.1 percent to P850.
San Miguel Corp., the largest beer maker, however, rose 3.2 percent to P98, while Ayala Corp. of the Ayala Group climbed 2.5 percent to P748.
Asian stocks mostly edged higher on Thursday, tracking gains on Wall Street.
The data showed US yearly inflation slowing less than expected and monthly inflation rising, stoking fears that the US Federal Reserve would continue its aggressive tightening of monetary policy.
On Thursday, bourses in Tokyo, Hong Kong, Taipei, Singapore, Kuala Lumpur and Jakarta made cautious gains.
Markets in Shanghai and Seoul, however, were down at the close.
Analysts said markets were bouncing back from the steep losses that followed the inflation data, and traders were pricing in an expected 75 basis-point interest rate hike by the Fed at a meeting next week.
The release of US producer price data also affected market sentiment, showing costs dropping for the second straight month, mainly driven by falling US fuel prices.
“Stock markets have stabilized a little after Tuesday’s rout which saw risk assets pummeled across the board,” said Craig Erlam, senior market analyst at OANDA.
Tokyo—the previous day’s biggest loser in Asia—closed up by 0.2 percent, but investors there remained wary of the speed and degree of future US rate hikes, analysts said.
In Hong Kong, stocks closed 0.4 percent higher on Thursday.
On Wednesday, Wall Street stocks rose as investors prepared for next week’s Fed decision, with the Dow rising 0.1 percent and the S&P 500 gaining 0.3 percent.
Any US interest rate hike tends to strengthen the dollar, and Asian currencies remain at risk from the strong greenback.
On Thursday, the Australian dollar traded near a two-year low, with the yen at near 143 to the US dollar.
A day earlier, Japan’s central bank conducted a “rate check” operation on the yen, a move seen as a precursor to possible intervention, and which served to bring the currency back from the 145 level that is widely seen as a threshold by the market. With AFP
Global consumer prices have soared for months, exacerbated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine—which has hiked energy and food costs—and because of supply chain strains and COVID lockdowns in China.
Analysts say markets have been trying to “front-run” predictions of when inflation will peak.
“There appears to have been a tendency in recent months to front-run certain releases in the hope that it’s going to prove to be the ‘pivot’ moment when everything starts to look up, central banks can ease off the brake and risk assets will have bottomed,” said OANDA’s Erlam. With AFP