Stock market slips for third straight day; Puregold rises

The stock market fell for the third straight day Thursday following another sharp sell-off on Wall Street as investors were bombarded by a perfect storm of problems including rising virus infections, new lockdowns, a slowing economic recovery, stalled US stimulus talks and election uncertainty.

The Philippine Stock Exchange Index dropped 46.92 points, 0.8 percent, to 5,845.80 on a value turnover of P4 billion. Losers overwhelmed gainers, 120 to 76, with 31 issues unchanged.

JG Summit Holdings Inc. of the Gokongwei Group declined 3.7 percent to P60.55, while Megaworld Corp., the biggest lessor of office spaces, shed 2.7 percent to P2.91.

Security Bank Corp., the sixth-largest lender in terms of assets, decreased 2.4 percent to P91.70, but Puregold Price Club Inc. of retail tycoon Lucio Co. rose 2.2 percent to P49.45.

The rest of Asian markets tumbled Thursday.

Months of mind-boggling gains in global equities have come to a juddering halt this month, and expectations are fading that a wall of cash from governments and central banks will jump-start a rebound.

“Markets are digesting and grappling with this idea that the growth expectations that investors have might not materialize,” said Lauren Goodwin, at New York Life Investments. 

“As the fiscal impulse in the US starts to wane, some of these expectations for a slow and steady recovery are shaken.”

And with the northern hemisphere now moving into autumn and winter, there are worries that a second wave of coronavirus will see the reimposition of strict, economically devastating containment measures.

All three main indexes in New York saw steep losses, resuming a retreat that has characterized September.

And the losses flowed through to Asia again, with Hong Kong, Tokyo, Shanghai, Singapore, Bangkok and Jakarta all down more than one percent, while Mumbai and Taipei shed more than two percent.

Seoul also slumped more than two percent after South Korea said forces from the North had shot a South Korean official and cremated him after he disappeared off a patrol vessel and ended up in Pyongyang’ waters.

Sydney and Wellington were also down.

France became the latest European country to act, shutting bars and restaurants in the second-biggest city Marseille and putting it on “maximum alert,” while several others, including Paris, will see new restrictions, including limitations on public gatherings and earlier closing hours.

Britain’s government has also shortened opening hours and has warned of other measures while the Madrid region has locked down roughly 850,000 people and plans to extend the measures.

The International Labor Organization found that by mid-year, global working hours had declined 17.3 percent from December—equivalent to nearly 500 million full-time jobs, which its chief Guy Ryder called “catastrophic.”

US traders are now growing concerned that rising infections at home could see similar moves, and several Federal Reserve officials including boss Jerome Powell have called for a new stimulus to mitigate the impact. With AFP