Extended ECQ pulls PSEi down
The stock market ended the week in the red after the government announced another extension to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) it first imposed in mid-March to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 2.4 percent or 134.57 points to close […]
The stock market ended the week in the red after the government announced another extension to the enhanced community quarantine (ECQ) it first imposed in mid-March to contain the spread of the coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) in the country.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 2.4 percent or 134.57 points to close at its intraday low of 5,464.98, while the wider All Shares shed 58.08 points or 1.7 percent to end at 3,350.73 on Friday.
In a market comment, Philstocks Financial Inc. said the “future economic losses brought by the community quarantine extension in Luzon’s major regional contributors sent the local bourse lower.”
During the Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases meeting aired on Friday, President Rodrigo Duterte announced that the quarantine would be extended in Metro Manila and Regions 3 (Central Luzon) and 4A (Cavite, Laguna, Batangas, Rizal and Quezon provinces, or Calabarzon) until May 15.
Several provinces outside Luzon that are deemed “high risk” areas were also placed under ECQ, while those considered “low and moderate risk” would be placed under general community quarantine, also until May 15.
Originally scheduled to end on April 12, the government initially extended the lockdown until April 30.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan also attributed the drop to the extended ECQ and reports suggesting that “a closely followed experimental drug intended to be used to treat coronavirus delivered disappointing results in an ‘inconclusive’ trial.”
Diversified Securities Inc. trader Aniceto Pangan said the local market followed its regional peers on the back of “poor economic data from the US with the increasing jobless claims indicative of [a rising] unemployment rate.”
Despite the recovery of crude oil prices, they’re still lower than the breakeven price of $20/bbl, he added, “which may threaten the employment of OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) [in the Middle East], plus other major oil-exporting countries that may further do damage to the global economic picture.”
On Wall Street, the S&P 500 and Nasdaq slipped by 0.05 percent and 0.01 percent, respectively, but the Dow Jones inched up by 0.17 percent.
In Asia, Tokyo slid by 0.86 percent, Shanghai was down by 1.06 percent, Hong Kong shed 0.34 percent, Seoul lost 1.34 percent, Jakarta fell by 1.97 percent, Singapore dropped by 0.65 percent and Thailand dipped by 0.54 percent. Ho Chi Minh rose by 0.44 percent.
In Manila, all sectors dropped except services, which increased by 0.17 percent.
Volume turnover was at 829.26 million shares, valued at P5.24 billion.
Losers led winners, 105 to 76, while 48 securities remained unchanged.