PSEi pulls back after US slump

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index retreated from the year’s peak on Friday as some investors were unnerved by an overnight bloodbath on Wall Street.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index slipped by 41.93 points or 0.63 percent to close at 6,596.96.

For the shortened trading week (Wednesday was a national holiday), the index was still ahead by a total of 35.76 points or 0.5 percent from last week’s close due to the gains eked out earlier in the week.

Overnight, a selldown in technology stocks dragged down the Dow Jones Industrial Index by 266.96 points. As such, regional markets thus tracked the overnight slump in US stocks, which in turn was partly triggered by a selldown on technology stocks.

The decline was led by the property counter which slipped by 1.54 percent.

Turnover for the day amounted to P8.3 billion. There were 75 advancers against 103 decliners while 45 stocks were unchanged.

Domestic investors were mostly those who sold down shares on Friday. Foreign investors were still net buyers for the day amounting to around P300 million.

ALI, the day’s most actively traded stock, fell by 2.8 percent after parent firm Ayala Corp. raised $300 million from the sale of bonds that can be exchanged for shares in ALI. This was even as AC explained that the transaction won’t dilute stockholders outside of parent AC.

URC, AGI, Metrobank, JG Summit and DMCI also lost ground, all declining by over 1 percent.

PLDT, SMIC, SM Prime, Megaworld, ICTSI, GTCAP and Jollibee also declined.

On the other hand, AC (+0.98 percent) and BPI (+0.11 percent) shares rose. AC obtained cheap financing from the issuance of bonds that can be exchanged for ALI shares.

Outside the main index, PBCOM shares rose by 13.6 percent in heavy trade after the bank’s annual stockholders meeting. Nickel Asia also rose by 3.53 percent after the mining firm announced higher shipment volume and value in the first quarter.