PSEi falls below 6,000

PSE index as of February 04, 2014, 3:46 PM. Screengrab from https://www.pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market index slumped below the 6,000 mark on Tuesday, tracking a global downturn triggered by a disappointing US manufacturing data.

The main Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 129.29 points  or 2.15 percent to close at 5,886.01, declining for the third straight session.

“It’s another heart-breaking day in February. Weakness in US manufacturing data and worries about the pending debt limit due this Friday triggered the sell-off. Investors were turned off as a result,” said fund manager Astro del Castillo,  First Grade Finance managing director.

“Don’t expect investors to say yes as uncertainties remain. Market may just hover below the 6,000 level this week,” Del Castillo said.

All counters were in the red but the most battered was the property sub-index (-3.44 percent). Holding firms and mining/oil counters were down by over 2 percent while the rest of the sub-indices declined by at least 1 percent.

Turnover amounted to P6.75 billion.

There were 133 decliners against 29 advancers.

The large-cap stocks that suffered most from the shakeout was ALI, which suffered a decline of 4.31 percent, and SM Prime and DMCI, both of which slid by over 3 percent. BPI, URC, Megaworld, AP, SMIC and MPI all fell by over 2 percent while AGI, GTCAP, Globe and AC declined by over 1 percent.

A report which indicated that US manufacturing activity had slowed sharply in January battered US stocks overnight, thus weighing down regional markets.