Stocks pull back

The main local stocks barometer pulled back Thursday after a five-day winning streak due to a combination of profit-taking and portfolio realignment influenced by the latest adjustments to closely tracked MSCI Indices.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gave up 81.26 points or 1.1 percent to close at 7,310.94.

All counters fell but the most battered was the mining/oil counter (-3.33 percent) due to concerns over the revenue-sharing scheme that is currently in the works.

The day’s biggest index loser was SMC, which fell by 5.45 percent after it was stricken off the closely tracked MSCI Philippines index. In contrast, MPIC rose by 2.34 percent after it replaced SMC in the index.

Shares of Philex, AGI, Megaworld, JG Summit, DMCI, Petron, ICTSI, BDO and RLC likewise declined.

Megaworld (-3.1 percent) and RLC (-1.95 percent) were also stricken off the small cap index alongside non-PSEi companies GT Cap, Puregold and Security Bank, which respectively fell by 2.79 percent, 1.59 percent and 2 percent.

Meanwhile, joining MPIC among the day’s index gainers was Bloomberry (+1.76 percent) as the market welcomed the revenues posted by Solaire Manila in the first 15 days of operation.

Value turnover amounted to P11.47 billion. There were 44 advancers which were eclipsed by 137 decliners while 34 stocks were unchanged. Doris C. Dumlao