Stocks Exchange Prices Sink Due To Inflation Concerns

Written by Marc Adrian

The Philippine Stocks Exchange has sunken deeper into the bear territory yesterday, Oct 4, 2018.  It has hit the 7,000 mark again a day before the government was set to announce the inflation in September.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), the local stock market barometer, plunged 117.53 points, or 1.63 percent, to finish at 7,093.34.  Yesterday’s close was the lowest close since June 28 when the index finished at 7,066.57. Thus, bringing the market deeper into bear territory with a 7,250 mark or the 20 percent decline from the index’s all time high of 9,058.62 last January 29, 2018.

Likewise, the broader All Shares index sank to 4,370.34, down 52.63 points or 1.19 percent.

The rest of the counters were also all in the red as market investors dumped their shares ahead of Friday’s inflation announcement.  The property and financials gauges were among the biggest decliners. Market breadth was positive with 69 decliners and 89 advancers. A total of 83 issues were left unchanged. Total value turnover at PHP4.305 billion reflected a risk averse investment climate.

According to the traders,inflation worries and unresolved concerns on the unabated increase in crude prices have been turning off investors from the Philippine stock market.  Domestic pump prices have reached a record high of up to PHP62 per liter after oil companies, citing the uptick movement in the global market, implemented this week another big hike of PHP1 per liter for gasoline.

The inflation figure for September was released today and as expected, it surpassed the record high inflation of 6.4 percent in August, which is now at 6.7 percent

[Source]