Index drops as investors take profits

MANILA, Philippines — Share prices ended a modest rally yesterday as investors took profits from the market’s recent gains, sending the stock indexes in the red for the first time in six days.

The 30-company benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed at 6,321.24, down by 64.28 points or 1.01 percent, while the broader All Shares index slipped to 3,400.83, down by 18.38 points or 0.54 percent.

Elsewhere in Asia, most markets followed Wall Street higher as a drop in oil prices and US Treasury yields provided some much-needed respite from speculation the Federal Reserve will push interest rates even higher.

Data showing a smaller-than-expected rise in personal consumption and a still-healthy US economy injected a little optimism at the end of a debilitating week for traders, who are coming to terms with the prospect of borrowing costs staying elevated for some time.

However, there is still plenty of uncertainty as Fed officials line up to warn that more work is needed to bring inflation down to their two percent target, even after more than a year of tightening and with rates at two-decade highs.

All three main indexes in New York advanced Thursday thanks to a softening in crude prices, which have hurtled towards $100 a barrel in recent weeks owing to supply cuts by Saudi Arabia and Russia and a pick-up in demand in key consumer nations.

The dip came on the back of profit-taking, though observers said there may have been some help after the president of consultancy Rapidan Energy Group said Riyadh might be ready to revive production earlier than many had thought thanks to elevated prices.

“They do not want to deliberately over-tighten the market, because if you get a spike, then you get a demand collapse, and you get a bust,” Bob McNally told Bloomberg Television on Thursday.

The recent advance in oil prices has stoked inflation concerns and sent Treasury yields to 16-year highs, dampening risk appetite.

But a sharp slowdown in personal consumption to its weakest pace in more than a year gave hope that another Fed hike before the end of the year was not a certainty.

Eyes will now turn to the release of the personal consumption expenditures price index, which is the central bank’s preferred measure of inflation.