PSEi breaches main support

The local stock market fell sharply Friday, dragging the main-index to the 5,800 level, as investors dumped large-cap stocks.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 94.63 points or 1.59 percent to close at 5,842.88 as momentum remained weak. For the week, the index lost 105.05 points or 1.77 percent after hitting resistance close to the 6,000 mark.

The day’s decline was led by holding firms (-2.56 percent) while the financial and industrial sectors likewise lost more than 1 percent.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities, said foreign investors were unloading index stocks.

Among the large-cap stocks that slumped Friday were Metrobank (-4.8 percent), SM Investments Corp. (-3.12 percent) and Robinsons Land (-3.01 percent) while BPI, Ayala Corp. and AGI slid by more than 2 percent. SM Prime, URC and Globe Telecom fell by over 1 percent.

Outside of the PSEi, Meralco and Puregold lost more than 1 percent.

There were twice as many decliners for every single gainer for the day. Value turnover amounted to P5.6 billion.

Across the region, trading was mixed ahead of a release of a key US jobs data. Doris C. Dumlao