|
LOCAL share prices closed sharply lower Friday as investors cashed
in profits ahead of the long weekend amid persistent worries about
the US economy, dealers said.
Financial markets in the Philippines will be
closed Monday for a public holiday.
The composite index dropped 95.82 points to
3,080.24, its weakest finish since January 23 when it closed at
3,058.26. The broader all-share index fell 46.46 points to 1,898.05.
Decliners overwhelmed gainers 103 to 19, while
38 stocks ended flat. Volume amounted to 2.7 billion shares worth
P2.5 billion.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average dropped more
than 140 points Thursday following more bad news for the US economy.
“The weak economic data in the US reversed
earlier optimism that forthcoming rate cuts by the Federal Reserve
may be adequate to arrest the economic slowdown,” said Ron Rodrigo
of DBP Daiwa Securities.
“The market’s reaction is a further
confirmation of the uncertainty that investors continue to harbor
over the economic outlook in the US,” said Francisco Liboro of
PCCI Securities.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. lost P90
at P2,840. Globe Telecom dropped P115 to P1,500. Ayala Corp. slipped
P12.50 to P440.
Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. was down two
pesos at P41.50 and Bank of the Philippine Islands retreated two
pesos to P55.
San Miguel saw both its A and B shares edge down
50 centavos to P50.50.
The local currency traded at 40.627 to the
dollar.
Business confidence in the Philippines has
suffered a knock due to growing political unrest and an economic
slowdown in the US, according to a Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP)
survey released earlier.
Firms cited “local political noise,”
concerns over a possible US recession, reduced export
competitiveness due to the strong peso, and a relentless surge in
oil prices, for their “cautious outlook,” the BSP said in a
statement.
On Thursday night, the Federal Reserve Bank of
Philadelphia said regional manufacturing had fallen to minus 24 in
February from minus 20.9 in January, twice as low as expected.
The headline index was also at its lowest level
since the 2001 recession, raising alarms that the US economy is on
the brink of contraction, if not already there.
“The further deterioration ... in February
confirms that the collapse in the index last month was not
statistical noise,” said Paul Ashworth at Capital Economics.
“As far as this indicator is concerned, a
recession, and a severe one at that, is already under way,” he
said.
Also weighing on the US currency was a decline
in the private Conference Board’s US leading indicators in January
for a fourth month in a row.
Ashworth said the leading indicators, looked at
over the past six months, were clearly pointing to a recession.
“It is a fairly reliable indicator as well,
successfully predicting every recession since 1960 and only throwing
up one false-positive back in 1967,” he said.
-- AFP
|
