PSEi falls below 7,500

The local stock barometer slipped below the 7,500-mark Wednesday, tracking region-wide jitters over China’s surprise devaluation of the yuan.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 75.02 points, or 0.99 percent, to close at 7,495.43. Across the region, stock markets were mostly lower as investors weighed the impact of the yuan devaluation.

A weaker Chinese currency is seen dragging down other currencies in the region. The Philippine peso, for its part, breached the 46:$1 mark on Wednesday.

At the local market, all counters ended in the red, led by the industrial and property counters, which each lost more than 1.6 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.84 billion. There were only 44 advancers as against 114 decliners while 55 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led lower by Megaworld, which fell by 3.42 percent, while Meralco and URC slipped more than 2 percent.
Megaworld saw a 67-percent year-on-year decline in first semester net profit to P5.43 billion due to large non-recurring gains that boosted the comparative profit level last year.

BDO, Ayala Land, Globe, SM Prime, AGI, GT Capital, Ayala Corp. and ICTSI lost more than 1 percent. Outside of the PSEi, Cebu Air declined by 3.76 percent.–Doris Dumlao-Abadilla