PSEi retreats after Wall Street bloodbath

Philippine Stock Exchange. AP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock barometer pulled back sharply on Thursday as risk-taking across the region was curbed by an overnight bloodbath in Wall Street.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 71.8 points or 0.99 percent to close at 7,196.26.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell by 238.19 points due to a mixed bag of economic data, political turmoil and Ebola jitters in the U.S. as the first case was diagnosed earlier in the week.

At the local market, all counters ended in the red but the most battered was the mining/oil counter, which fell by 2.6 percent. The industrial, services and property counter all tumbled by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.41 billion. There were thrice as many decliners (139) as there were advancers (41) while 47 stocks were unchanged.

Property stocks ALI and SM Prime led the day’s PSEi decline, each falling by over 2 percent. Index heavyweight PLDT (-0.98 percent), the day’s most actively traded stock, also weighed down the index.

URC and Megaworld both fell by over 1 percent while AP, BDO, EDC, GTCAP, BPI, Meralco and AC also contributed to the decline.

Outside of the main index, Nickel Asia fell shaply (-7.27 percent) alongside Security Bank (2.91 percent).

On the other hand, those that bucked the downturn were Metrobank, AGI and ICTSI, which posted modest gains.

Outside of PSEi stocks, one notable gainer for the day was Abra Mining, which surged by 29.51 percent in heavy trade. The company disclosed that the board has given management authority to negotiate, discuss, talk, explore, transaction and enter into private placement arrangements with foreign and other interested inventors and financial institutions, for possible financial resources to meet its requirements.