PSEi down on poor GDP growth

The local stock barometer tumbled sharply on Thursday on news of the country’s weaker-than-expected third-quarter growth performance.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 91.25 points or 1.24 percent to close at 7,265.34, likewise weighed down by SM Prime’ sale of treasury shares.

All counters were in the red, led by the property counter, which slid by 2.87 percent. This sub-index was dragged lower by SM Prime, which fell 4.81 percent after selling treasury shares at a 5-percent discount to the previous day’s closing price. Ayala Land and Megaworld also declined by more than 3 percent.

Another big decliner was EDC (-4.89 percent). Investors also sold down shares of Metrobank and DMCI, which both slipped more than 2 percent. Ayala Corp. and BDO likewise lost more than 1 percent.

It was reported yesterday that the country’s third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) had expanded by only 5.3 percent year-on-year, much lower than the consensus forecast of 6.5 percent. This was likewise the most sluggish quarterly growth since 2011.

The index stocks that bucked the day’s downturn were AGI (+0.2 percent), Semirara (+1.24 percent), Globe (+0.87 percent), RLC (+0.78 percent) and LTG (+0.15 percent).

Value turnover for the day amounted to P27.3 billion, buoyed by the P18-billion treasury sale by SM Prime. There were 53 advancers, which were overwhelmed by 129 decliners, while 39 stocks were unchanged. Doris C. Dumlao