MANILA, Philippines — Investors opted to pocket gains yesterday, sending share prices to plunge, and halted the market’s two-day climb.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index plummeted by 1.03 percent or 67.31 points to finish at 6,489.35.
The broader All Shares index likewise fell by 0.80 percent or 28.2 points to settle at 3,510.04.
Claire Alviar of Philstocks Financial said the local bourse’s drop was due to profit taking after two consecutive days of market rally.
Alviar said foreign investors also pulled the market down as it registered net selling of P202.79 million.
“Moreover, although the BSP’s (Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas ) rate cut in August was highly anticipated by investors, the possibility that the rate cut may lead to further weakness of the peso to below P59 against the dollar, negatively affected sentiment,” she said.
Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. chief economist Michael Ricafort said the local stock market gauge corrected lower, considered a healthy profit-taking.
Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said Philippine shares took a breather and slipped below the 6,500 level following mixed results on Wall Street.
Net market value turnover thinned to P3.67 billion from the previous day’s P4.94 billion.
It was a bloodbath across all local counters, three of which shed by more than one percent.
Industrial dropped 1.64 percent, followed by mining and oil as well as property, which declined by 1.56 percent and 1.02 percent, respectively.
Market breadth was negative as decliners pummeled advancers, 111 to 62, while 62 issues were unchanged.
Ayala Corp. posted the biggest gain among index members at 1.15 percent, while ACEN Corp. lost the most at 4.18 percent.
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