MANILA – Risk-off sentiments on news saying the Federal Reserve will take a more aggressive tightening took over the local bourse on Wednesday, resulting in the negative close of all the counters, along with the peso.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped by 0.65 percent, or 46.81 points, to 7,109.26 points.
All Shares followed with a decline of 0.45 percent, or 16.94 points, to 3,780.49 points.
Holding Firms registered the biggest drop among the sectoral counters after it fell by 1.23 percent.
It was trailed by Services, 0.52 percent; Financials, 0.33 percent; Property, 0.26 percent; Mining and Oil, 0.23 percent; and Industrial, 0.05 percent.
Volume reached 11.53 billion shares amounting to PHP4.98 billion.
Decliners led advancers at 102 to 79, while 51 shares were unchanged.
Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corporation (RCDC) head of sales, traced the PSEi’s negative close to reports quoting Federal Reserve Governor Lael Brainard as saying that the Fed could take a more aggressive take on policy rate increases.
“On top of this, recessionary fears continued to spook investors as Deutsche Bank became the first major Wall St. bank to forecast that a US recession is ahead, citing the Fed getting more aggressive to fight inflation,” he said.
Last month, the Fed hiked its key rates by 25 basis points, the first since December 2018. This brought the Fed’s key rates to between 0.25 to 0.50 percent.
This, as consumer price index (CPI) in the US further rose to its more than four-decade high of 7.9 percent on an annual basis last February.
Meanwhile, the local currency finished the trade at 51.43 against the US dollar, weaker than its 51.19 close a day ago.
It opened the trade at 51.25 and traded between 51.445 and 51.25. Average level for the day stood at 51.386.
Volume reached USD1.26 billion, lower than the previous session’s USD1.3 billion. (PNA)
