PSEi slips as 2nd quarter earnings season unfolds

THE LOCAL stock barometer slipped for the second session in a row on Thursday as investors digested the stream of local corporate earnings reports for the second quarter.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 55.63 points or 0.74 percent to close at 7,439.80 ahead of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ monetary policy setting.

As expected, the local monetary authority kept its monetary settings unchanged.

The decline was led by the industrial, services, mining/oil and property counters which all slumped by over 1 percent.

“Second quarter earnings have been mixed suggesting a more selective approach towards portfolio building. Uncertainty over timing of interest rate hike by the US Fed (Federal Reserve) and now the yuan devaluation, continue to weigh on markets, capping upside,” local stock brokerage DA Market Securities said in a research note on Thursday.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.04 billion. There were 53 advancers which were overwhelmed by 111 decliners while 45 stocks were unchanged.

Bloomberry led the PSEi declines, losing 10.84 percent after reporting a P1.3 billion net loss in the first semester.

SMPH also slumped by 3.68 percent while GTCAP, URC, ICTSI and JG Summit all faltered by over 2 percent. AC slipped by over 1 percent.

ALI, Metrobank, Meralco and DMCI also dragged the index.

On the other hand, Globe bucked the day’s downturn, rising by 2.15 percent. MPI and SMIC were also up by over 1 percent while BDO, PLDT and Megaworld also firmed up.

Outside of the PSEi, newly listed SBS continued to gain on the back of an asset play. SBS shares rose by 2.43 percent.

DA Market said technical indicators were pointing to neutral to negative bias, pointing to a possible test of the 7,400 support, the 300-day moving average. “The support test will be pivotal in establishing a support or otherwise,” it said.