The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) got no love on Valentine’s Day from investors who decided to sell off their positions ahead of the monetary policy meeting this week, falling below the 6,800 territory as analysts predict another hike to curb the elevated inflation level.
The PSEi fell by 0.69 percent, or 47.52 points, to close at 6,791.24 while the broader All-Shares index slid by 0.31 percent, or 11.31 points, to settle at 3,631.65 on Tuesday.
“Investors continued to stay away from the local equities market on concerns over the upcoming monetary policy setting meeting of the Monetary Board (MB),” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.
The MB is set to conduct its first monetary policy meeting of the year on Feb. 16.
Claire Alviar, Philstocks Financial Inc. assistant manager for research and online engagement, said that investors were expecting a hike of 25 to 50 basis points for the policy rate, from the current 5.5 percent, given the heating up of inflation.
Recently, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that inflation climbed to 8.7 percent in January from 8.1 percent the previous month. This was the highest since 9.1 percent in November 2008. All the subsectors ended in the red. Property index booked the steepest decline with 0.93-percent drop, followed by holding firms with 0.70 percent.
—Tyrone Jasper C. Piad INQ
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