PSEi closes lower

Philippine stocks snapped a two-day rally on Thursday with the index closing down one percent as negative news abroad triggered profit taking.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell by 0.96 percent, or 70.69 points, to 7,314.38 on Thursday while the broader all

shares index also declined by 1.08 percent to 4,485.42.

Shares tracked declines in the region as well as Wall Street the night before, with all three major indices in the United States ending in the red. China’s manufacturing unexpectedly contracted in May, the first time in seven months, a report showed Thursday.

All subsectors Thursday closed in the red, led by the mining and oil sub-index, which ended lower by  2.19 percent. Financials lost 1.74 percent while industrial companies lost 1.28 percent.

Volume of shares traded hit 2.015 billion, valued at P12.14 billion, data from the Philippine Stock Exchange showed. There were 148 decliners against 33 advancers while 34 companies closed unchanged, the data showed.

Sy-led conglomerate SM Investments Corp. led the list of most actively traded issues, as its share price declined by 0.42 percent to P1,198 per share.

This was followed by snack foods maker Universal Robina Corp., down 3.1 percent to P125 per share, and shopping mall operator SM Prime Holdings, which rose 2.9 percent to P21.30 per share.

Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. dropped 2.54 percent to P134.5 per share while Ayala Land Inc. declined 1.96 percent to P35 per share.

Other actively traded stocks were Asia United Bank Corp. (-4.61 percent), Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (+0.38 percent), LT Group Inc. (-2.67 percent), Alliance Global Group Inc. (-2.57 percent) and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (-1.79 percent).—Miguel R. Camus