The Philippine Stock Exchange index dropped 62.23 points or 0.92 percent to 6,690.27 as local investors emerge from another long weekend while they digest US Federal Reserve chairperson Jerome Powell’s hawkish speech in Jackson Hole.
“The hawkish stance of the Fed despite the easing of inflation brought negative sentiment as this may lead to a US recession,” Philstocks Financial Inc. assistant manager for research and online engagement Claire Alviar said.
“At home, the peso is weakening once again, trading at the 56 level. We may expect the peso to depreciate further if the Fed will continue to hike interest rates,” she added.
The trading week was shortened to four days as the trading floor was closed Monday in observance of the National Heroes Day. Mounting concerns among pundits over rising interest rates and tighter US monetary policy weaken market’s finish, Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director Luis Limlingan said.
Turnover hits P5.6B
Upon Tuesday’s closing, the local bourse recorded P5.61 billion in net market value turnover. All sectors were in the red led by Holdings, which dropped by 1.01 percent.
Meanwhile, there were only three stocks in the index that posted a gain — it was led by Monde Nissin Corporation, up by 2.63 percent, while LT Group Inc. was at the bottom after it lost by four percent.
In a related market development, Solar Philippines Nueva Ecija Corporation said it expects that its Stock Rights Offering, a fund raising activity that would generate a fresh P2.8 billion in funding, will be fully subscribed as investors bank on the government’s path towards harnessing indigenous resources to generate cheap power.
The company said brokers have begun taking orders for SPNEC’s SRO, with the start of the offer period on 30 August, Tuesday.
Founder and young businessman Leandro Leviste, for his part, said a guaranteed success of this SRO follows the Principal Shareholder’s Undertaking under the prospectus filed before market regulators.