PSEi down 1.11% on Wall Street decline

Share prices on the Philippine Stock Exchange closed in the red on Friday, tracking declines overnight on Wall Street amid concerns of a US government shutdown.

The benchmark PSEi lost 83.70 points or 1.11 percent to close at 7,749.71. The broader All Shares shed 42.55 points or 0.94 percent to 4,501.58.

“The market’s decline was really related to the drop in the Dow,” Eagle Securities president Joseph Roxas said.

On Wall Street, the Dow ended Thursday with a loss of 1.99 percent and the S&P 500 dived 1.58 percent and the Nasdaq by 1.63 percent as markets were spooked when US President Donald Trump refused to sign legislation to fund the US government unless he got money for a border wall, thus risking a partial federal shutdown on Saturday. 

“Philippine shares were sold heavily right before the ... holiday ... All three US stock indexes registered 52-week ... lows,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.

Financial markets are closed for the Christmas on December 24 and 25.

“With a long weekend coming up, expect the PSEi to respond to the moves of the US market when our market opens ... on Wednesday,” P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said.

Foreign funds bought P4.716 billion of shares and sold P5.196 billion for a net selling position of P480.628 million.

More than 724.217 million shares, valued at P7.095 billion, changed hands. Decliners led advancers, 123 to 59, and 47 issues were unchanged.

Week-on-week, the main index shed 44.66 points or 0.59 percent from 7,524.37 on December 14. The bellwether lost 1,244.42 or 14.26 percent from 8,724.13 on Jan. 3, the first trading day of 2018. —VDS, GMA News