AFP FILE PHOTO
MANILA, Philippines–The local stock barometer retreated on Friday, ending a five-day winning streak, tracking an overnight profit-taking in Wall Street that dampened regional sentiment.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 36.33 points or 0.61 percent to close at 5,947.93.
Across the region, trading was sluggish after recently-released minutes from the US Federal Reserve’s December policy meeting showed that some voting members were increasingly concerned about the potential risks of the Fed’s bond-buying operations, a powerful stimulus program which has been reduced but will continue for now.
Sentiment was mixed across counters, with holding firms (-1.07 percent) weighing down the index the most alongside weakness in the services and property counters.
On the other hand, an outperformer for the day was the mining/oil counter (+5.12 percent).
Value turnover for the day amounted to P4.2 billion. Despite the main index decline, market breadth was positive, with 80 advancers edging out 61 decliners while 42 stocks were unchanged.
Investors sold down shares of SMIC (-1.33 percent), PLDT (-1.27 percent), SM Prime (-1.33 percent) and Globe (-2.42 percent). Likewise contributing to the day’s decline were AC, AGI, ALI, MPI, BDO, RLC and ICTSI.
On the other hand, the day’s decline was tempered by the gains posted by Bloomberry and EDC, which both gained by over 2 percent, alongside gains eked out by Metrobank, URC, FGEN and BPI.