MANILA — The stock market and the peso concluded the week with losses, as investor sentiment soured amidst escalating geopolitical tensions in the Middle East.
On Friday, the local stock market witnessed a decline, with the main index dropping by 80.19 points (1.23 percent) to 6,443.00. This downturn was attributed to the heightened tensions in the Middle East following Israel’s attack on Iran, according to Claire Alviar, assistant research manager at Philstock Financials, Inc. Alviar noted that this negative sentiment led investors to offload shares ahead of the weekend to mitigate uncertainties.
The broader All Shares index also experienced a decline, shedding 34.77 points, or 1.01 percent, to 3,421.55. Despite this overall downturn, the Mining and Oil sector managed to buck the trend, closing in the green with a gain of 1.15 percent to 8,222.62. However, the rest of the sectoral indices ended in negative territory, with the Property sector registering the steepest drop of 2.55 percent to 2,418.23.
Alviar highlighted that among the index members, only five stocks posted gains during the session. Emperador, Inc. recorded the highest increase, up by 1.61 percent, while DMCI Holdings, Inc. experienced the most significant decline, plummeting by 8.2 percent following its ex-dividend date. Losers outnumbered gainers at 134 to 58, with 43 firms remaining unchanged. The net market value turnover on Friday amounted to PHP4.83 billion.
Meanwhile, the Philippine peso depreciated further on Friday, weakening by 0.46 to 57.65 against the US dollar compared to the previous day’s close of 57.19. It opened the day at 57.35, slightly weaker than Thursday’s start of 57.15. Throughout the day, the currency pair traded between 57.32 and 56.67, averaging at 57.54 to the greenback. Trade volume rebounded on Friday, reaching USD1.85 billion, up from the previous day’s volume of USD1.8 billion.
(Source: PNA)