Stocks plummet amid United States growth fears

MANILA, Philippines — The local bourse joined a regional downtrend yesterday amid fears of a recession in the United States.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index plunged by 1.32 percent or 88.53 points to 6,605.30, ending a two-day winning streak.

Also closing in the negative territory was the broader All Shares index, which fell by 0.89 percent or 32.28 points to settle at 3,596.90.

“Philippine shares tumbled along with the rest of the region on growing fears of a potential recession,” Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said.

Claire Alviar of Philstocks Financial said the local bourse slid along with its Asian peers following the negative cues from Wall Street amid recession fears in the US.

“Given some dismal economic data in the US, investors were worried that the Federal Reserve might now be late in easing monetary policy, potentially leading to recession,” she said.

“Back at home, the Philippines’ S&P Global Manufacturing PMI in July still registered an expansion at 51.2. However, it was slightly lower than the prior month’s 51.3,” Alviar said.

Net market value turnover saw a slight improvement to P4.58 billion from the previous day’s P3.89 billion.

All counters were in the red, four of which shed by more than one percent each.

Services suffered the biggest blow with a 1.97-percent drop, followed by financials, which plummeted by 1.67 percent.

Market breadth was negative as decliners thrashed advancers, 112 to 59, while 53 shares were unchanged.

Among the most actively traded stocks were ICTSI which declined by 2.78 percent, Ayala Land which lost 1.7 percent, BDO which dropped by 2.02 percent and BPI which fell by 2.48 percent.

Globe Telecom posted the biggest gain among the index members at 2.59 percent, while ACEN lost the most with 5.1 percent.