Stocks continue to decline

The local stock barometer slipped for a second straight session Friday amid a brewing Philippine-Taiwan row alongside some profit-taking and portfolio realignment.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 31.07 points or 0.43 percent to close at 7,279.87 for the day. The worst hit were the mining/oil (-1.91 percent) and property (-1.46 percent) counters.

For the week, the index firmed up by a modest 0.2 percent despite the pullback in the last two days.

Value turnover amounted to P13.41 billion for the day. There were 65 advancers, which were no match to the 101 decliners, while 44 stocks were unchanged.

Bucking the day’s downturn was Asia United Bank, which gained 9.47 percent to close at P104 on its first day of trading on the PSE.

Mining stocks continued to be battered by concerns on revenue-sharing scheme.  As such, the day’s steepest decliner among PSEi stocks was Philex (-4.96 percent).

Other index laggards were SM Prime, AGI, URC, RLC, ALI, SMC, PLDT, Belle and SMIC. On the other hand, the day’s biggest index gainers were Jollibee (+2.12 percent), JG Summit (+2.11 percent), BDO (+1.38 percent) and MWC (+1 percent).

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc., said the Philippine-Taiwan tension had some adverse impact on the market. “It could affect the economy because of the number of Filipino workers in Taiwan,” he said, adding that this was on top of the ongoing diplomatic dispute with China and the recent standoff in Malaysia. Doris C. Dumlao