Stocks end flat

The local stock market was flat Wednesday as investors were more cautious as the main index neared the 7,000 mark.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added a meager 2.75 points or 0.04 percent to close at 6,986.24, reversing a modest decline in early trade.

Trading was mixed across counters, with the industrial, services and mining/oil counters aiding the index while the financial, holding firm and property counters were a tad lower.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.98 billion. Despite the PSEi’s slight increase, there were only 80 advancers versus 86 decliners while 53 stocks were unchanged.

EDC was among the day’s outperformers, rising by 2.06 percent after reporting a 28-percent jump in first-semester core income.

URC and ICTSI also rose by more than 1 percent. URC reported a 1.3-percent growth in net profit in the nine-month period ending June.

PLDT, Ayala Corp., BDO, SM Investments Corp. and GT Capital also firmed up.

Outside of PSEi stocks, Marcventures was an outperformer (+6.53 percent) in anticipation of the lifting of the suspension order on its mining operations.

Consumer plays Puregold and Robinsons Retail also firmed up in heavy volume while another retailer—SSI Group—unveiled plans to go public.

On the other hand, First Gen, Megaworld, Metro Pacific Investments Corp. and Metrobank ended lower. Doris C. Dumlao