Stocks down for a fifth day

The local stock barometer slipped for a fifth day of profit-taking on Monday, as investors reassessed portfolios after the recent run-up, alongside sluggish trading across the region.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 40.61 points or 0.56 percent to close at 7,161.27 as all counters ended in the red. The decline was led by the mining and oil counter which fell by 1.14 percent.

Value turnover was thin at P6.2 billion. There were 66 advancers which were overwhelmed by 108 decliners, while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Dealers said the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ twin-tightening moves last week were weighing down the market especially at a time that many stocks have reached lofty valuations.

On Thursday last week, the BSP raised both special deposit account and overnight policy rates by 25 basis points.

At the same time, sentiment was weak

across regional markets due to concerns on the Chinese economy.

The PSEi was led lower by Megaworld (-2.93 percent) while Globe and DMCI likewise fell by over 2 percent. ALI, AGI and Petron all tumbled by over 1 percent.

Other large-cap stocks that contributed to the day’s decline were URC, BDO, ICTSI and SMIC.

On the other hand, GTCAP (+1.56 percent) bucked the day’s downturn alongside Metrobank and AC, which eked out modest gains.

Outside of PSEi stocks, Vista Land (+1.82 percent), Puregold (+0.6 percent) and Manila Water (+0.36 percent) rose in heavy volume. Doris C. Dumlao