MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market slipped yesterday on news of higher Philippine unemployment rate in July.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index inched down by 0.04 percent or 2.62 points to end at 6,120.09.
The broader All Shares index settled at 3,691.35 after dipping by 0.007 percent or 0.24 points.
“The local market ceded early gains and ended flat after the country’s unemployment rate jumped to a three-year high in July due to disruptions from successive typhoons,” AP Securities Inc. said in a report.
The Philippine Statistics Authority reported that the country’s unemployment rate spiked to 5.3 percent in July, the highest since June 2022, from 3.7 percent in June.
In terms of levels, the number of unemployed individuals in July stood at 2.59 million. This was higher than the number of unemployed individuals in July last year at 2.38 million.
Those in the red dominated the sectoral gauges, with services suffering the biggest blow with a 1.76-percent drop.
The property index, meanwhile, gained the most with a 1.27-percent jump.
Trading remained robust with total value turnover improving to P7.28 billion from the previous day’s P6.23 billion.
Market breadth remained positive as advancers edged out decliners, 97 to 91, while 69 issues were unchanged.
ICTSI was the session’s top traded stock, plunging by 3.03 percent to P474.20 per share, followed by property giant Ayala Land and BDO Unibank which climbed by 2.05 percent and 2.01 percent, respectively, to P29.90 and P136.70.
