US-China trade war downs PHL shares

Philippine equities resumed the trading week in the red on Tuesday, after a one-day break for the midterm elections, as market players sold positions amid the escalating trade dispute between the world's largest economies.

The bellwether PSEi shed 95.54 points or 1.23 percent to 7,646.66 at the closing bell. The broader All Shares lost 54.72 points or 1.14 percent to 4,736.54.

"The market today reacted on the US-China trade tit-for-tat as China retaliated with tariffs imposed by President Trump," Philstocks Financial Inc. research analyst Piper Chaucer Tan said.

China on Monday announced it would impose higher tariffs on $60 billion of US goods following Washington's decision last week to hike its own levies on $200 billion in Chinese imports. 

The partial results of the midterm elections, which showed that none of the opposition bets secured a Senate seat, also contributed to the negative sentiment in the market.

"It may be some negative sentiments to the election," Tan said.

Philstocks Financial Inc. research analyst Japhet Tantiangco also said that some investors could be seeing the results of the polls as "a loss of checks and balances in the government."

Tan, however, said that the election is not the main culprit for the market's decline, "it's both domestic and global negative sentiments. Combination of both."

Foreign funds bought P7.219 billion and sold P8.676 billion for a net selling position of P1.456 billion.

More than 919.785 million shares valued at P11.949 billion, changed hands. Decliners led advancers, 140 to 57, and 37 issues were unchanged.

"MSCI's rebalancing announcements may have also played into how total value turnover surged to P11.4 billion today," P2P Trade Online research analyst Gio Perez said.

Morgan Stanley Capital International (MSCI) Philippines is an index designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Philippines market. — BM, GMA News