August 13, 2024 | 12:00am
MANILA, Philippines — Investors stayed on the sidelines ahead of this week’s Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) policy meeting, pulling the market down to open the week in the red.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 0.52 percent or 34.44 points to close at 6,613.36.
The broader All Shares index also dropped by 0.27 percent or 9.7 points to finish at 3,598.54.
“The local market declined as investors took a cautious stance while waiting for the BSP’s policy meeting set this week. Investors are seen to be pricing in the possibility that the BSP will still hold policy rates unchanged in light of the recent inflation, labor market and GDP figures,” Philstocks Financial research manager Japhet Tantiangco said.
Tantiangco said trading was tepid with net value turnover registering P3.52 billion, below the year-to-date average of P4.90 billion per day as many stayed out amid the uncertainties.
Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said local investors also kept to cash as many awaited the latest results of the MSCI rebalancing while waiting for the US to kick off their trading week.
All counters were in the red except for services, which surged by 1.3 percent.
Mining and oil index and holding firms, meanwhile, posted the biggest losses at 1.72 percent and 1.53 percent, respectively.
Market breadth was negative as decliners battered advancers, 105 to 79, while 52 issues were unchanged.
Century Pacific Food led the index members with a 2.79 percent gain, while Nickel Asia lost the most with 5.07 percent.
Among the most actively traded stocks were SM Investments (down by 2.15 percent), BDO (down by 3.06 percent), SM Prime (down by 1.69 percent), ICTSI (up by 2.01 percent) and PLDT (up by 2.11 percent).
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