Stocks slip anew on economic growth concerns

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market tumbled for a third consecutive session amid concerns over the country’s economic growth for the third quarter.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 0.5 percent or 29.23 points to cap off yesterday’s session at 5,814.56.

The broader All Shares index also finished in the negative territory at 3,253.35, down by 0.41 percent or 13.36 points.

Philstocks Financial Inc. said the local market declined further on renewed worries over the Philippine economy’s growth.

It said this comes as Fitch Solutions’ BMI said that local economic growth for the third quarter could be lower than expected due to public infrastructure delays and tepid household spending.

“Elevated oil prices, rising local treasury yields and a weak peso also continued to weigh on the market,” Philstocks Financial said.

RCBC chief economist Michael Ricafort said the market downtrend came amid hawkish signals from some US Federal Reserve officials, which could lead to further interest rate hikes.

After the latest 25-basis-point Fed rate hike, Ricafort said possible off-cycle Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas rate hike could not be completely ruled out before its rate-setting meeting on Oct. 22 to maintain healthy interest rate differentials and help stabilize the peso versus the dollar.

Ricafort said the market’s decline yesterday also came ahead of the upcoming Mynt initial public offering in October that could sap some market funds.

All local counters were in the red, except for services, which grew by 0.86 percent. Holdings firms posted the biggest drop at 2.17 percent, followed by mining and oil, which declined by one percent.

Total value turnover was at P6.71 billion, a slight dip from the previous day’s P6.87 billion. Decliners edged out advancers, 99 to 90, while 58 issues were unchanged.