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Regional optimism over US-China trade talks failed to filter to the stock market on Wednesday, with the benchmark index falling below 8,000 during intraday trade.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) traded most of the day in the red but pared its losses to finish at 8,009.92, down by 0.64 percent or 51.62 points from Monday. The wider All Shares declined by 0.70 percent or 34.07 points to close at 4,858.41.
“The market corrected today … as there [is] no substantial progress on the US-China trade talks,” Diversified Securities Inc. trader Aniceto Pangan said.
Lower-level negotiations began on Monday in Beijing but it will only be on Thursday and Friday when US Trade Representative Robert Lighthizer and Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin step in for discussions aimed at striking a deal before a March 1 deadline.
Markets fell last week on news that US President Donald Trump had written off an expected summit with his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jingping but on Monday, White
House adviser Kelyanne Conway said “he (Trump) wants to meet with President Xi very soon”.
Wall Street was mixed overnight but Asian markets advanced on optimism over the US-China talks and a provisional deal to avoid a repeat of the US government shutdown.
Tokyo jumped by 2.61 percent as trading resumed after a holiday. Shanghai added 0.68 percent, Seoul and Bangkok gained 0.45 percent and 0.39 percent, respectively, while Hong Kong inched up 0.10 percent.
Jakarta and Singapore, on the other hand, dropped 0.94 percent and 0.17 percent, respectively.
In a separate comment, P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said investors traded amid a lack of market-moving developments.
“With the PSEi already showing signs of weakness with its intraday dip below the 8,000 mark in the afternoon, watch out if the level will continue to hold for the rest of the week,” he said.
In Manila, most sectoral results ended in the red except for services, which picked up by 0.16 percent.
More than 2.7 billion shares valued at P7.2 billion were traded.
Losers led winners, 124 to 86, while 46 issues were unchanged.
FROM REPORTS BY AFP
