MANILA, 30 September — The Philippine stock market bucked the trend of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) and fell to a new three-year low last week.
The main market indicator dropped off 36.22 points as it fell 3.11 percent to 1,126.63 points. But because of bargain hunting on the exchange, turnovers were quite high. Total value traded skyrocketed 391 percent to 7.6 billion pesos ($149 million) while actual trades added up to 2.5 billion shares after rising 32.31 percent.
Stock market players though the three-year low seen at the beginning of the trading week was low, but the index fell even more at the end of the week.
Trading managed a slight increase when the New York market suddenly surged, but traders said foreign players were selling out of smaller markets to shift to bigger markets which offer better bargains.
Others said foreign players opted to hold on to cash amid the uncertainty in global markets.
The slight increase in New York also made analysts wary. “That’s suspicious, you expect a sell off soon (in the Dow), it gives an indication that the Dow is having a real difficulty climbing,” said Enrique Santa Ana, associate director for sales at DBS-Vickers Ballas Securities.
Traders said the market was likely to extend its losses next week and could probably test its major support of 1,075 reached in September 1998.
