Philippine stocks ended the week in the red while the US markets were closed for the Thanksgiving celebration.
Philippine shares declined 24.69 points or 0.37 percent to 6,613.85 while the all shares index rose 4.14 points or 0.11 percent to 3,739.08.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said the local benchmark fell close to 6,600 level as traders grew cautious over US president-elect Donald Trump’s tariff threats against China, Canada and Mexico.
Meanwhile, the Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI) said a rate cut from the BSP in December remains possible given the favorable outlook for inflation.
It, however, noted that BSP’s decision may also depend on the behavior of the peso in the coming weeks.
BPI also expects November’s inflation rate to rise slightly to 2.5 percent from October’s 2.3 percent print, driven in part by supply challenges caused by bad weather. “Weekly data on vegetable prices appear to have been affected by typhoons as month-on-month increases rose faster than October’s,” BPI senior vice president and lead economist Emilio Neri, Jr.
Indices ended mixed with property increasing by 0.20 percent, financials and holding firms by 0.04 percent.
On the other hand, services declined 1.81 percent while mining and oil dropped 1.42 percent and industrial by 0.19 percent.
Value turnover was lukewarm, which stood at P5.36 billion with 101 advancers and 80 decliners while 63 stocks were unchanged.
Shares of International Container Terminal Services Inc. went down 3.9 percent to P370 each while BDO Unibank Inc. rose 1.51 percent to P154.50 apiece.
