MANILA – Federal Reserve rate hikes anticipation and reports of higher-than-expected growth of the Philippine and US economies in the last quarter of 2021 hurt the local bourse’s main index on Friday but the peso improved.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 0.30 percent, or 21.55 points, to 7,251.97 points.
All Shares followed with a drop of 0.14 percent, or 5.41 points, to 3,856.08 points.
Most of the sectoral counters also finished the week in the red – Property, 1.70 percent; Services, 1.39 percent; Holding Firms, 0.96 percent; and Mining and Oil, 0.18 percent.
On the other hand, Financials rose by 3.18 percent and Industrial by 1.04 percent.
Volume reached 1.23 billion shares amounting to PHP8 billion.
Losers led gainers at 109 to 76 while 57 shares were unchanged.
“Philippine shares slipped in another frenzied session as investors weighed the Fed’s aggressive stance on raising interest rates against the last GDP (gross domestic product) report from both here and the US, as well as preparations ahead of corporate earnings,” said Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. (RCDC) head of sales.
On Thursday, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported a 7.7 percent GDP growth for the domestic economy in the last quarter of 2021, higher than the previous quarter’s downwardly revised 6.9 percent expansion and a reversal from the -8.3 percent contraction in the same period in 2020.
This brought the full-year print to 5.6 percent, surpassing economic managers upwardly revised 5 percent to 5.5 percent growth assumption.
Relatively, the US economy grew by 6.9 percent, year on year, in the last quarter of 2021, higher than the consensus forecast of 5.5 percent and the unrevised 2.3 percent jump in the previous quarter.
Limlingan said the growth is unexpected given the impact of the Omicron variant of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) on hiring and output as more workers got sick.
On the other hand, the local currency gained against the US dollar after finishing the week at 51.23 from 51.34 on Thursday.
Its improvement showed early on after it opened the day at 51.34 from the previous session’s 51.45.
It traded between 51.35 and 51.21, resulting in an average of 51.273.
Volume reached USD1.12 billion from Thursday’s USD886.8 million. (PNA)
