PSEi slips as investors pocket gains

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) clipped gains on Thursday’s session, dropping 42.94 points to close 0.53 percent lower at 7,977.12 ahead of the holiday on Friday in observance of All Saints’ Day.

Likewise, the all-shares index declined 0.29 percent to 4,787.45, while all sub-sectoral indices except for the holding firms index registering losses.

“Investors kept to cash for the long weekend and immediately after the Federal Reserve’s third rate cut of the year and comments from chairman Jerome Powell that signaled it would be a while before the central bank hikes rates,” head of sales for Regina Capital Development Corp. Luis Limlingan said in a daily market note.

Limlingan added that news on the trade war front also added jitters after Chile canceled the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation meeting next month due to ongoing protests in the country.

The meeting is where the United States and China intended to sign its partial trade agreement.

Still, the interest rate cut pushed key US equities up overnight, with the S&P 500 up 0.3 percent to 3,046,77. The Nasdaq Composite was likewise up 0.3 percent to 8,303.98 while the Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 0.4 percent to 27,186.69.

Asian markets ended mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up 0.37 percent to 22,927.04. China’s Shanghai Composite Index dropped 0.47 percent to 2,925.63 after the economic powerhouse’s manufacturing output further contracted in October. Hong Kong’s Hang Seng index, meanwhile, was up 0.47 percent to 26,839.31.

Here, the financials index booked the largest loss, receding 1.16 percent. The index is followed by the property index, down 0.83 percent; the mining and oil index, down 1.29 percent; the services index, down 0.19 percent; and the industrial index, down 0.03 percent.

The holding firms index survived the session with a 0.02-percent gain.

Value turnover stood at P7.761 billion, higher from Wednesday’s P5.99 billion. Decliners won over advancers, 100 to 78, while 61 issues were unchanged.