PSEi down on profit taking ahead of Fed decision

PHILIPPINE SHARES closed lower on Wednesday due to profit taking and as Wall Street indices fell ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s policy decision.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went down by 66 points or 0.98% to close at 6,606.69 on Wednesday, while the broader all shares index declined by 21.51 points or 0.6% to 3,525.18.

“The local bourse dropped by 66 points (0.99%) to 6,606.69 as investors booked some gains after the three consecutive days of market rally, tracking the losses on Wall Street last night,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Analyst Claire T. Alviar said in a Viber message on Wednesday.

Ms. Alviar said there was cautiousness in the market ahead of the Fed’s statement overnight and the release of April Philippine inflation data on Friday.

“PSEi ended lower, cutting short its three-day uptrend, as investors take profit ahead of the Fed’s meeting this Thursday and Philippine inflation on Friday. Some investors may have also cashed in their gains after the index breached key resistance level of 6,644 [on Tuesday],” Unicapital Securities, Inc. Senior Equity Research Analyst Carlos Angelo O. Temporal said in a Viber message.

Major US stock indices fell more than 1% each on Tuesday as regional bank shares tumbled on renewed fears over the financial system and as investors tried to gauge how much longer the Fed may need to hike interest rates, Reuters reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 367.17 points or 1.08% to 33,684.53; the S&P 500 lost 48.29 points or 1.16% to end at 4,119.58; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 132.09 points or 1.08% to 12,080.51.

The US central bank has raised benchmark rates by 475 basis points since March 2022 to a range between 4.75% and 5%.

Meanwhile, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) last week said inflation likely settled at 6.3%-7.1% in April.

This would be slower than the 7.6% in March, but will exceed the BSP’s 2-4% target for the 13^th straight month.

The majority of sectoral indices closed lower on Wednesday, except for mining and oil, which went up by 58.52 points or 0.55% to 10,594.40.

Meanwhile, financials decreased by 32.39 points or 1.68% to 1,886.70; property went down by 22 points or 0.79% to 2,738.73; holding firms fell by 43.73 points or 0.67% to 6,454.68; industrials decreased by 56.75 points or 0.59% to 9,425.06; and services dropped by 7.80 points or 0.48% to 1,595.67.

Value turnover increased to PHP 4.92 billion on Wednesday with 567.97 million shares changing hands from the PHP 4.08 billion with 1.17 billion issues traded on Tuesday.

Decliners outnumbered advancers, 91 versus 86, while 56 names closed unchanged.

Net foreign selling stood at PHP 120.07 million on Wednesday versus the PHP 67.1 million in net buying seen on Tuesday. — By A.H. Halili with Reuters