Philippine shares close lower on BSP move, US-China trade talks

Share prices on the Philippine Stock Exchange closed lower on Friday, a day after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas kept policy rates unchanged, and foreign funds worry about the outcome of the US-China trade talks.

The benchmark PSEi was down 0.75 point or 0.01% at 7,932.96 after the closing bell, according the PSE’s Index Summary. The All Shares slipped by 5.92 points or 0.12% to 4,751.81.

More than 760.224 million shares,  valued at P6.846 billion, were traded. Losers led gainers, 109 to 61, and 63 issues were unchanged.

Foreign funds bought P3.635 billion of shares and sold P4.040 billion for a net selling position of P404.881 million. Friday’s foreign transaction was the eighth consecutive trading day of net foreign selling.

“There was also not much market-making activity as the BSP announced they would maintain they key policy rates yesterday afternoon which was little surprise to investors and analysts,” said Luis Limlingan, head of sales at Regina Capital and Development Corp.

“I think it’s ‘sell on news’ right after the BSP meeting,” Limlingan noted.

The BSP’s policy-setting Monetary Board (MB) kept rates at current settings with the overnight borrowing rate at 4.00%, the overnight lending at 4.50%, and the overnight deposit rate at 3.50%.

First Metro Securities Research was expecting the market to trade flat with a downward bias as markets continue to wait on more definitive news on the US-China trade discussions.

“The five-week euphoria has been dissipating in the markets as Washington and Beijing struggle to finalize a phase one trade deal, as both markets tiff over intellectual property provisions, agricultural purchase agreements and tariffs,” First Metro Securities noted. —VDS, GMA News