Stock prices continue slide

By Doris C. Dumlao

THE LOCAL stock barometer faltered for the second session in a row as investors reassessed gains after last week’s breakout to new highs.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index gave up 32.51 points or 0.43 percent to close at 7,452.81.
The 7,500 mark was revisited in intra-day trade but profit-taking pressures led to the lower close.
Across the region, trading was mostly upbeat ahead of the release of China’s 2014 gross domestic product (GDP) growth report.
Later in the day, it was announced that China’s GDP had expanded by 7.3 percent in the fourth quarter, resulting in a 7.4-percent growth for the whole of 2014, the slowest since 1990.
At the local market, all counters ended in the red but the mining/oil counter was the worst hit, declining by 2.91 percent.
Value turnover amounted to P8.29 billion.
The 71 advancers were eclipsed by the 114 decliners while 39 stocks were unchanged.
The decline was led by AGI (-3.13 percent), DMCI (-2.36 percent) and AC (-1.27 percent).
Those that bucked the downturn included MPIC, which gained by 3.8 percent, and BDO, GT Capital and Bloomberry, which all rose by over 1 percent.  ALI, Megaworld and Globe also firmed up.