PSEi slips below 7,800

THE LOCAL stock barometer returned to the doldrums on Wednesday, tracking an overnight Wall Street slump arising from US interest rate jitters.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 37.78 points or 0.48 percent to close at 7,790.70.

All counters ended in the red, led by the industrial counter which fell by 1.06 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.6 billion. Market breadth was negative, with 45 advancers eclipsed by 130 decliners while 47 stocks were unchanged.

EDC led the PSEi decliners, falling by 4.37 percent on jitters over the BacMan geothermal plant. FGEN was likewise down by 2.29 percent.

Bloomberry and SM Prime both fell by over 2 percent. JG Summit and MPI also dropped by over 1 percent.

Metrobank, SMIC, BDO, GTCAP and Megaworld also contributed to the decline.

Outside of the PSEi, there was profit-taking on D&L (-3.61 percent) alongside FNI (-2.6 percent), the day’s most actively traded stock.

On the other hand, AGI bucked the downturn, rising by 2.02 percent while ALI, AC and DMCI also firmed up.

Local stock brokerage DA Market Securities noted that investors were turning more cautious, locking up profits from stocks that were fairly valued while seeking more attractive values in the market as earnings results trickle down. It noted that the market was indicating a bias towards possible consolidation/correction.

Overnight, the closely-tracked Dow Jones Industrial Index tumbled by 332.78 points on rising concerns that the US Federal Reserve may start hiking interest rates earlier than expected. The bloodbath in Wall Street also tempered risk-taking in regional markets.