Market ignores strong Q4 economic data

MANILA, Philippines - The local benchmark index yesterday took a pause from its four-day record setting rally, tracking global downtrend and disregarding the country’s faster fourth quarter economic growth.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped 0.57 percent or 43.88 points to end at 7,617.30, while the All Shares index tumbled 0.62 percent or 27.62 points at 4,427.16.

“A breather did not come as a surprise after a four-day winning streak, as investors take stock of corporate prospects,” said Jason Escartin, investment analyst at F. Yap Securities.

Despite a negative close, the PSEi managed to pierced through the 7,700 mark for the first time earlier in the trading session, recording a new all-time intraday high at 7,736.97.

“It started going down when the GDP data was released. It was what we call ‘sell-on-use’. It’s a stock market trend meaning the market has been going up the past few weeks going into this announcement then it sells off. Investors might be discounting already the announcement of GDP,” said Bryan Gomez, co-head of investments at Citisecurities Inc.

The Philippine economy grew by 6.9 percent in the fourth quarter of 2014, faster than the 6.3 percent growth seen in the same period of 2013, the government reported yesterday.

However, full-year gross domestic product (GDP) growth for 2014 stood at 6.1 percent, lower than the government’s target of 6.5 to 7.5 percent.

Abroad, US and Asian shares were on a sour mood following indications that the Federal Reserve will raise interest rates this year.