PSEi falls by 3.05%

The local stock barometer slipped for the fifth straight session Tuesday, officially entering the “bear” market, on combined jitters over the United States’ monetary policy and China’s banking system.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 181.99 points or 3.05 percent to close at 5,789.06, battered by a wave of foreign selldown of emerging market stocks.

All counters were in the red but the most affected was the holding firm sub-index (-4.33 percent).

Total trades amounted to P12.97 billion. There were about six decliners for every single gainer at the market.

The local index has now pulled back by 1,614.76 points or 21.8 percent since peaking at about 7,400 in mid-May, reversing from a bull to a bear market.

A market is technically deemed back to bearish mode when it slides by 20 percent from the peak.

The local stock barometer has also slipped below the 5,812.73 closing at end-2012, halting the run-up seen in the last four years.

The day’s biggest index decliner was Belle (-11.54 percent) followed by AC (-9.19 percent), Bloomberry (-8.1 percent), EDC (-7.34 percent), Megaworld (-6.45 percent), AEV (-5.88 percent), ICTSI (-5.7 percent), Petron (-4.83 percent), Jollibee (-4.22 percent) and DMCI (-4.17 percent).

Among those that bucked the day’s downturn were SM Prime (+3.21 percent), MWC (+1.36 percent), Philex (+1.2 percent), Meralco (+0.98 percent) and Semirara (+0.87 percent). Doris C. Dumlao