Stocks fell Thursday on recession fears after the Dow suffered its worst day of the year as fears of a global recession mounted with investors fleeing equities.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index declined 29.79 points, or 0.4 percent, to 7,828.86 on a value turnover of P11.8 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 149 to 54, with 42 issues unchanged.
Alliance Global Group Inc. of tycoon Andrew Tan lost 4.7 percent to P12.68, while SM Prime Holdings Inc., one of the biggest integrated property developers in Southeast Asia, dropped 2.8 percent to P34.50.
International Container Terminal Services Inc., the largest port operator, fell 2.8 percent to P124, while BDO Unibank Inc., the biggest lender in terms of assets, shed 2.4 percent to P145.
The rest of the Asian market declined, with Tokyo’s key Nikkei index nosediving nearly two percent at the open before recovering slightly to finish 1.2 percent down.
The losses followed a dark day on European bourses and on Wall Street, with all three US benchmarks tumbling around three percent and US bond yields plunging as investors deserted stocks for safer Treasury assets.
“The Japanese stock market is sliding against the backdrop of sharp falls in US shares,” Okasan Online Securities said in a note.
“Worries over the US economic recession grew, while negative economic data for China and Germany also prompted investors to downgrade their views on the global economy,” Mizuho Securities added.
The yield on the 10-year US Treasury note briefly slid below the yield on the two-year bond, a so-called “inversion” that has been a reliable harbinger of recession for decades.
Coming on the back of an intensifying US-China trade war that shows no signs of resolution, the flight to bonds signaled the growing fears of a global recession.
“US-China trade tensions have metastasized into something more sinister by affecting global growth to such a large degree that bond markets are pricing-in a high probability of a worldwide recession”, warned Stephen Innes, managing partner at VM Markets.
The trade war has hammered global demand, with Chinese industrial output hitting a 17-year low while investment and retail sales have also slowed in the world’s number two economy.
Weeks of pro-democracy protests in Hong Kong have added to the climate of uncertainty, with Beijing referring to the increasingly violent demonstrations as “terrorism”, stoking fears of a Chinese crackdown.
Sydney plummeted nearly three percent while Singapore shed 1.2 percent. But Hong Kong recovered from early losses, adding 0.8 percent after opening 1.5 percent down. Shanghai closed 0.3 percent higher after shedding 1.7 percent at the open.
Economists have warned for months that the trade tensions were threatening investment and dampening global sentiment, which is already suffering due to China’s slowdown and fears over Brexit’s impact on Britain and Europe.
“The now drawn out US-China trade war has sapped investor confidence. It is now threatening to turn what would have been an orderly and gentle slowdown, after ten years of uninterrupted growth, into something potentially much more aggressive,” said Jeffrey Halley, senior market analyst at OANDA. With AFP
