Stocks dip on Wall Street cues

MANILA, Philippines —  The local stock market finished in red territory following negative cues from Wall Street.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index tumbled by 0.78 percent or 47.54 points to end yesterday’s session at 6,031.48.

The broader All Shares index also declined by 0.36 percent or 12.49 points, settling at 3,446.96.

“The local market pulled back, taking cues from Wall Street’s overnight decline,” Philstocks Financial research manager Japhet Tantiangco said.

“Investors traded cautiously while waiting for the US’ November inflation data which is expected to give clues on the Federal Reserve’s policy outlook,” Tantiangco said.

Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said that Wall Street closed lower, with major indexes falling to multi-week lows as concerns over the artificial intelligence trade weighed on technology stocks.

Limlingan said shares of a major tech firm declined after a report stated that its key data center partner would not support a planned large-scale investment in a new facility.

Locally, all sectors were down, with the property index taking the biggest hit with a 1.62-percent drop.

Market breadth was negative as decliners edged out advancers in a close contest, 95 to 91, while 66 issues did not change hands.

Total turnover value expanded to P12.82 billion from the previous day’s P5.99 billion .

Jollibee was the most actively traded stock, plunging by 2.83 percent to P182 per share, followed by ICTSI and BDO which inched down by 0.17 percent and 0.31 percent, respectively, to P576 and P130.60.