AFP photo
MANILA, Philippines — Most local stocks returned to the doldrums on Thursday, weighed down by the discounted equity placement by conglomerate JG Summit.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 57.79 points or 0.77 percent to close at 7,416.31.
The day’s decline was led by the holding firm counter, which in turn tumbled by 1.83 percent following a discounted share-sale by JG Summit.
Shares of JG Summit, the day’s most actively traded stock, slid by 11.16 percent to P62.10. This was after the conglomerate placed out P8.8 billion worth of shares at P61 per share — a discount of 12.7 percent from Wednesday’s closing.
Metrobank (-2.86 percent) also weighed down the index alongside Ayala Corp. (-1.07 percent), DMCI (-1.34 percent) and Megaworld (-1.7 percent).
ALI, URC, SMIC, SM Prime and BDO also weighed down the index.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P19.8 billion, bloated by the JG Summit equity deal. Foreign buying amounted to P9.05 billion versus foreign selling of P5.5 billion.
Most counters faltered except for the industrial counter, which slightly firmed up.
Market breadth was negative, with 106 decliners overwhelming 65 advancers while 48 stocks were unchanged.
On the other hand, the stocks that bucked the downturn included FGEN (+4.78 percent) and AGI (+2.16 percent).
The completion of a treasury stock placeout deal by FGEN removed the market overhang on this company.
GTCAP, EDC, PLDT and Jollibee also traded higher.
Elsewhere in the region, trading was mixed ahead of the European Central Bank’s decision on monetary stimulus.