PH stock index dips for 5th straight time

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine stock market slipped for the fifth straight session but stayed afloat the 6,000 at close on Monday due to the seasonal outflow of “hot money.”

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index dipped by 6 points or 0.1 percent to close at 6,008.94 in thin trade.

The decline was led by the property counter (-1.18 percent) while the financial, industrial and services counters also ended in negative territory.

On the other hand, the holding firms and mining/oil counters ended slightly higher.

Value turnover was thin at P4.58 billion. Market breadth was negative, with 99 decliners outclassing 53 advancers while 40 stocks were unchanged.

“There’s a lot of hot money selling” said Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc., referring to the unloading of short-term investments by foreign investors. “There was not enough buying to absorb them,” he said.

The decline was partly due to local factors, Roxas said, referring to concerns on slower growth and higher inflation in the fourth quarter following the havoc wreaked by Supertyphoon “Yolanda” (Haiyan).

Across the region, stock markets were mostly higher as an improved US jobs data for November boosted optimism on economic recovery.

By specific stocks, the biggest PSEi laggers were Bloomberry (-3 percent) and Ayala Land Inc. (-2.03 percent) while EDC, GTCAP, SM Prime, Jollibee and DMCI declined by over 1 percent.

Meanwhile, the index stocks that bucked the downturn were JG Summit (+4.23 percent), MPI (+2.89 percent), Semirara (+2.34 percent)and AGI (+1.86 percent).

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