Philippine stocks slump over Euro, US economic woes

MANILA, Philippines — Local stocks slumped on Monday in thin trade, dragging the main index below a key support at 4,300, as European and US woes continued to rattle global financial markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 50.02 points or 1.15 percent to finish at 4,296.05, weakening for the second straight session.

Profit-taking on the mining/oil and property sectors weighed down the PSEi the most as their respective counters declined by 2.03 percent and 1.97 percent. The holding firm and services sub-indices also fell by more than 1 percent.

Value turnover further thinned out to P3.2 billion from Friday’s P4.15 billion as many investors chose to stay in the sidelines, given the sluggish global markets.

There were only 39 advancers, which were overwhelmed by 110 decliners while 34 stocks were unchanged.

Among the stocks that fell on heavy trade were SM Investments, Lepanto A (open only to local investors), EDC, PLDT, BDO, AGI, Security Bank, SM Prime, FPH, AEV, Aboitiz Power, Atlas and MPI.

Those that bucked the downturn were San Miguel Corp., Philex, Boulevard, Metrobank and Philex Petroleum whose shares sizzled on its first day of listing on the local bourse by way of introduction.

Philex Petroleum shares were up by 617 percent to P8.60 per share as the company announced plans to pursue its exploration of natural gas resource in the Recto Bank, touted by the firm to be the “next Malampaya.”

Apart from external sentiment, the day’s trade was partly influenced by the realignment of the PSEi, which took effect on Monday. Five new companies joined the main index – San Miguel, SM Development Corp., Semirara Mining, Cebu Air and Belle Corp. They replaced First Philippine Holdings, Filinvest Land, Lepanto, Security Bank and ABS-CBN.

As of noontime on Monday, when the local equity markets closed, the Dow Jones Industrial futures index was down by 86 points. On Friday, the Dow Jones Industrial Index slumped by 303.68 points or 2.7 percent to end at 10,992.13. Apart from fresh jitters on fiscal situation of Greek, there were doubts on whether the $447-billion jobs program presented by President Barack Obama could hurdle the US Congress.