MANILA — Philippine equity gauges all finished in the red Tuesday and the peso followed after news about the last minute deal between the US, Canada and Mexico, which effectively replaces the 25-year-old North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA)
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 1.24 percent, or 89.72 points, to 7,132.36 points, which Landbank market economist Guian Dumalagan traced to the trade deal, which will now be called US-Mexico-Canada Agreement (USMCA).
The agreement updates and expands the three-country free trade deal, which came into effect way back in 1994.
With investors hailing the deal, Philippine shares retreated along with counterparts in the region as investors have a preference for safe haven assets.
Thus, All Shares also went down by 0.98 percent, or 43.29 points, to 4,398.80 points.
Property posted the highest drop at 3.66 percent and was followed by the Mining and Oil, 2.50 percent; Financials, 0.71 percent; Holding Firms, 0.64 percent; Industrial, 0.42 percent; and Services, 0.12 percent.
Volume reached 921.395 million shares amounting to PHP5.7 billion.
Losers led gainers at 112 to 72 while 56 shares were unchanged.
The peso ended the trade at 54.25 from 54.11 a day ago, which a trader pointed to further increase in world oil prices on top of the USMCA factor.
Oil prices in the international market rose to multiyear high, with the benchmark West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude hitting the highest since 2014 at around USD75 per barrel.
The trader attributed this to possible supply issues once US’ sanctions on Iran starts in November.
With this additional concern the local currency opened the day at 54.18, weaker than its 54.03 start in the previous session.
It traded between its opening level and 54.29, resulting to an average of 54.251.
Volume reached USD655.4 million, higher than the USD385.7 million a day ago.
The currency pair is seen to trade between 54.10 and 54.30 Wednesday. (Joann Villanueva/PNA)
