Stocks down on Greece debt woes

The local stock barometer returned to the doldrums Thursday as Greek debt default fears weighed down most regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gave up 61.42 points or 0.8 percent to close at 7,581.91, tracking the decline in most regional markets. As of the market’s closing, Greece was still on the brink of debt default but negotiations with creditors were still ongoing.

The local bourse also closed lower ahead of a policy-making meeting by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

As expected by the market, monetary authorities kept key interest rates unchanged. Meanwhile, the BSP also lowered its inflation forecast for 2015 to 2.1 percent from 2.3 percent amid a benign inflation outlook despite threats of another El Niño dry spell.

The day’s decline was led by the financial and services counters, which both lost more than 1 percent. The industrial and holding firm counters also slipped. Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.09 billion. There were 70 advancers, which were outnumbered by 97 decliners, while 60 stocks were unchanged.

The day’s decline was led by BDO and Megaworld, which both fell more than 2 percent. PLDT, Jollibee, Ayala Corp., Meralco and BPI slipped more than 1 percent.

SM Prime, MPIC, Metrobank, Ayala Land, SMIC, GTCAP, EDC and AGI also ended lower.

Outside of PSEi stocks, one notable decliner was Vista Land, which lost 2.56 percent of its market capitalization.

Meanwhile, the PSEi stocks that defied the day’s downturn were URC (+2.07 percent) and RLC (+2.55 percent). URC was the day’s most actively traded stock.

Non-PSEi stock DNL gained 1.37 percent in heavy volume. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla