By Leslie Gatpolintan/Philippine News Agency
MANILA — The local stock barometer retreated while the peso weakened against the dollar on Monday amid the worsening trade war between the two giant economies, US and China.
“The increase in tariffs by (President Donald) Trump certainly was a factor in pulling our market lower. An escalating trade war between US and China hurts investor sentiment across asset classes,” AAA Equities president William Matthew Cabangon said.
Cabangon said market sentiment is especially weak because of the failure to break and hold above 8,000 level for the third time since late March.
“8,000 has proven to be a very strong resistance level for our market, which can discourage investors from buying again at those levels in the near future,” he added.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 105.68 points, or 1.33 percent, to 7,862.30.
All sectors ended the day in the negative territory, led by financials and property sectors which declined by 2.19 percent and 1.79 percent, respectively.
Volume of transactions reached 719.41 million shares amounting to PHP2.26 billion.
Decliners dominated advancers, 146 to 56, while 35 shares were unchanged.
Meanwhile, the peso closed Monday at 51.925 from 51.85 on Friday.
The local currency opened Monday at 52.06, weaker than its 51.93 start on Friday.
It traded between 52.08 and 51.925, resulting in an average of 52.03
Volume reached USD770.33, lower than previous trading day at USD707.2 million.
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