PH share prices close lower

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index on Thursday slipped as investors pocketed gains after a six-day runup.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange gave up 10.59 points, or 0.17 percent, to close at 6,101.72, tracking mostly lackluster trades throughout the region.

On the other hand, the latest MSCI rebalancing, which will take affect on Feb. 28, affected trading on conglomerate JG Summit and port operator ICTSI, which moved in opposite directions reflecting the respective addition and subtraction in their weight on MSCI Philippines.

In the latest rebalancing of the closely tracked MSCI indices, there had been no addition or deletion from the Philippine roster. But one significant adjustment was the reduction in the country weight of ICTSI to 3.38 percent from 5.37 percent.

On the other hand, there was an upward adjustment in the weight of JG Summit to 6.57 percent from 5.41 percent.

Shares of ICTSI slipped by 3.73 percent to close at P98 a share, while JG Summit shares rose by 4.13 percent to P41.60 after the latest MSCI rebalancing was announced.

Overall market breadth on Thursday was negative with 73 decliners against 63 advancers, while 57 stocks were unchanged. Value turnover amounted to P5.14 billion.

The services and mining/oil subindices weighed down the PSEi the most, while modest gains by the industrial and holding firm counters tempered overall losses.

SMPH and Megaworld both slipped by over 2 percent. Metrobank, PLDT, AGI, SMIC, GTCAP, AC and LTG also closed lower.

MWC (+7.4 percent) was the day’s biggest gainer. Parent firm MPI (+3.2 percent) also advanced.—Doris C. Dumlao