The stock market climbed Monday on select buying following positive corporate earnings in the third quarter.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index rose 44.70 points, or 0.6 percent, to 7,109.03 on a value turnover of P4.2 billion. Gainers beat losers, 97 to 78, with 45 issues unchanged.
BDO Unibank Inc., the biggest lender in terms of assets, advanced 2 percent to P118.30. The bank said net income rose 18 percent in the third quarter to P8.4 billion from a year ago, on solid expansion of core lending and deposit-taking, life insurance and fee-based businesses. Total profit in the first nine months hit P21.5 billion, up by 6 percent from the same period last year.
DMCI Holdings Inc. of the Consunji Group climbed 3.5 percent to P12.40, while Security Bank Corp., the sixth-largest lender, added 1.7 percent to P142. Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. rose 2.2 percent to P168.10.
The rest of Asian stocks fluctuated Monday with investors still on edge after last week’s rout, with caution after another hammering for Wall Street offsetting bargain-buying.
Even a forecast-busting jump in US economic growth in the third quarter was not enough to prevent all three main indexes in New York from tanking, with the Dow and S&P 500 falling into negative territory for the year.
The US losses came after disappointing earnings reports from titans Alphabet and Amazon, which compounded concerns about rising interest rates and the China-US trade war that shows no sign of abating.
“Fears of an economic slowdown in the US proved to be premature, but investors worry that the boost from (Donald) Trump tax cuts is evaporating,” said Alfonso Esparza, senior market analyst at OANDA.
“Stocks have been vulnerable as the US Federal Reserve stands firm on its plans to hike one more time this year and three or four in 2019 on its path to rate normalization. US-China relations have not improved and earning reports have started to reflect the impact of tariffs on China.”
Hong Kong fell 0.1 percent in the afternoon after moving between gains and losses, while Tokyo ended 0.2 percent off and Shanghai lost more than two percent. Seoul shed 1.5 percent.
But Sydney climbed 1.1 percent, Singapore added 0.5 percent, Wellington put on 0.6 percent and Jakarta was 0.4 percent down.
“I still think there is room for a bit of a downside to go because I do see this as being largely a structural shift in markets,” Kyle Rodda, a market analyst at IG Group in Melbourne, told Bloomberg Television.
“The overall sentiment is still to the downside, is still quite bearish and there will be a little while for this correction to play out.”
Attention now turns to the release later this week of US jobs data for a fresh glimpse at the world’s top economy.
The dollar was mostly up against higher-yielding and emerging market currencies including the Mexican peso, Australian dollar, the Indonesian rupiah and Thai baht.
It was also up against the yuan, with weak industrial profits data and speculation of fresh monetary easing putting downward pressure on the Chinese unit, which is sitting close to a 10-year low. With AFP
