Stocks down on profit-taking

Local stocks on Tuesday pulled back from record-highs as a much-awaited correction was triggered by a global slump in equities against the backdrop of a political stalemate in Italy.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 90.66 points or 1.35 percent to close at 6,630.67.

All counters ended in the red but the biggest decline was incurred by the property counter(-2.41 percent).

The pullback did not come as a surprise as the overbought stock market was hungry for a correction especially as the piercing of the 6,700-mark on Monday lured many investors to lock up recent gains, stock dealers said. This developed as a political deadlock in Italy depressed stocks in Wall Street overnight as well as most Asian markets. Fiscal worries over the euro zone intensified anew following reports that no party won a Senate majority in Italy’s elections.

At the local market, value turnover amounted to P10.5 billion. There were about twice as many decliners as there were advancers for the day. The biggest index decliners were ICTSI (-4.17 percent), Ayala Land (-3.5 percent), Jollibee (-2.7 percent), BPI (-2.62 percent), Megaworld (-2.5 percent), AEV (-2.32 percent), RLC (-1.98 percent), SMC

(-1.63 percent), SM Prime (-1.6 percent) and Metrobank (-1.55 percent).

On the other hand, the day’s losses were tempered by the gains of EDC (+2.11 percent) alongside those of Aboitiz Power, Meralco, FGEN, MPI, Philex and DMCI. EDC announced that its BacMan geothermal facility had resumed operations, contributing 100 megawatts to the grid. Doris C. Dumlao