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LOCAL share prices and the peso fell sharply Tuesday amid soaring
oil prices, regional stock market weakness and following a Wall
Street slide last week, dealers said.
The composite index fell 93.75 points to
2,645.95 points. The all-share index fell 2.6 percent to 1,667.04
points.
Only eight stocks advanced compared with 95
decliners and 42 that were unchanged.
Turnover rose to P4.25 billion compared with
P2.297 billion on the previous trading day. There was no trading on
Monday due to a public holiday.
The sharp downturn was “a reaction to the
significant increase in oil prices and the weakness of the US
market,” said April Lee Tan of Citiseconline.
“It all started from the US market. It fell on
Friday and even though it rebounded on Monday . . . it wasn’t
really a lot,” she remarked.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. fell 3.4
percent to P2,435.
Property developer Megaworld Corp. fell 9.89
percent to P1.64.
Food and beverage giant San Miguel Corp. saw its
A shares, available only to Filipinos, remain unchanged at P41.50
while its B shares fell 2.38 percent to P41.
At the Philippine Dealing System, the peso
closed at 44.425 to the dollar, down from 44.135 on Friday. Trading
volume reached $661.500 million.
“The market is reacting on higher oil prices
which would mean higher rates/exchange rates,” Jonathan Ravelas,
market strategist at Banco de Oro Unibank said.
Ravelas said the peso is expected to improve in
the fourth quarter of the year, as remittances are seen to increase
during the holiday season.
“The fourth quarter should be probably a
different story,” he said.
The peso breached the 44-to-a-dollar level last
week as inflation hit a nine-year high of 9.6 percent in May.
“The risk is that the market hasn’t seen the
top of crude price[s],” Ravelas said.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas recently raised
its inflation forecast to between 7 percent and 9 percent this year.
-- AFP and Maricel E. Burgonio
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