SHARE prices dropped anew on Wednesday, with the main index dropping below the 8,000-point mark on expectations that the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) will not raise its rates to support the falling peso.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index fell 150.53 points to close at 7,909.07.
The last time the main index was in the 7,000-point mark was in early-September last year.
Only the Philippine shares fell as most Southeast Asian stock markets recovered ahead of the US Federal Reserve’s rate decision. The US Fed is expected to raise rates at its two-day policy meeting.
Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis Limlingan said it expects that the BSP will normalize policy by hiking rates, beginning on May or June.
“This will come as above-trend growth leads to a continued tightening in capacity utilization and inflation clears the upper end of the BSP’s inflation target band,” Limlingan said.
Among the subindices, only the Services and Mining and Oil Sector managed to escape the downtrend.
The All Shares index lost 59.43 to 4,789.06, the Financials index shed 41.48 to 2,069.38 and the Industrial index fell 48.57 to 11,226.78.
Total value of trade was at P9.51 billion on 2 billion shares traded.
Losers edged gainers 139 to 85, and 41 shares were unchanged.