Philippine stocks yesterday fell for a fifth day, pushing the nation’s benchmark index into a bear market, amid concern over potential global headwinds and disappointing domestic economic data.
The nation’s benchmark equity gauge slid to the lowest level in more than two years as the prospect of higher US tariffs threatened by US President Donald Trump damped the optimism of global equity investors. A government report published on Thursday showed the local economy grew slower than analysts expected, hurt by sluggish investment, consumption and farm output.
“The bout of continuing weakness is likely being underpinned by the lack of a positive catalyst,” said Rastine Mackie Mercado, an analyst at Chinabank Securities Corp in Manila.
Photo: Reuters
Investors are also awaiting the release of fourth-quarter and full-year company’s earnings reports, he said.
The Philippine Stock Exchange Index slipped 4 percent yesterday to 5,862.59, more than 20 percent below its October high, and the lowest closing level since October 2022. Volumes climbed during the selloff, with 138.8 million shares changing hands, the highest daily turnover in four months.
The nation’s GDP rose 5.2 percent last quarter from a year earlier, the statistics agency said on Thursday. That fell short of the 5.5 percent median estimate in a Bloomberg survey and matched the 5.2 percent pace for July to September.
Full-year growth at 5.6 percent also missed the adjusted government target of 6 percent to 6.5 percent and the 5.8 percent forecast by economists. On quarter, the expansion was slower than estimated at 1.8 percent.
Philippine Finance Secretary Ralph Recto said the government remains “optimistic” about its outlook for this year.
Intel Corp chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) is expected to meet with Taiwanese suppliers next month in conjunction with the opening of the Computex Taipei trade show, supply chain sources said on Monday. The visit, the first for Tan to Taiwan since assuming his new post last month, would be aimed at enhancing Intel’s ties with suppliers in Taiwan as he attempts to help turn around the struggling US chipmaker, the sources said. Tan is to hold a banquet to celebrate Intel’s 40-year presence in Taiwan before Computex opens on May 20 and invite dozens of Taiwanese suppliers to exchange views
Application-specific integrated circuit designer Faraday Technology Corp (智原) yesterday said that although revenue this quarter would decline 30 percent from last quarter, it retained its full-year forecast of revenue growth of 100 percent. The company attributed the quarterly drop to a slowdown in customers’ production of chips using Faraday’s advanced packaging technology. The company is still confident about its revenue growth this year, given its strong “design-win” — or the projects it won to help customers design their chips, Faraday president Steve Wang (王國雍) told an online earnings conference. “The design-win this year is better than we expected. We believe we will win
Chizuko Kimura has become the first female sushi chef in the world to win a Michelin star, fulfilling a promise she made to her dying husband to continue his legacy. The 54-year-old Japanese chef regained the Michelin star her late husband, Shunei Kimura, won three years ago for their Sushi Shunei restaurant in Paris. For Shunei Kimura, the star was a dream come true. However, the joy was short-lived. He died from cancer just three months later in June 2022. He was 65. The following year, the restaurant in the heart of Montmartre lost its star rating. Chizuko Kimura insisted that the new star is still down
While China’s leaders use their economic and political might to fight US President Donald Trump’s trade war “to the end,” its army of social media soldiers are embarking on a more humorous campaign online. Trump’s tariff blitz has seen Washington and Beijing impose eye-watering duties on imports from the other, fanning a standoff between the economic superpowers that has sparked global recession fears and sent markets into a tailspin. Trump says his policy is a response to years of being “ripped off” by other countries and aims to bring manufacturing to the US, forcing companies to employ US workers. However, China’s online warriors
RSS