THE LOCAL stock barometer slipped for the second session in a row on Wednesday as weak factory data from US, China and Europe spurred concerns on the global economy.
But the main index stayed above the 7,000 mark and trimmed intra-day losses at close. The Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 14.4 points or 0.2 percent to close at the day’s high of 7,072.46.
The index hit as low as 6,887.41 in early trade, weighed down by the overnight bloodbath in Wall Street. On Tuesday, the closely-watched Dow Jones Industrial Index slid by 469.68 points or 2.84 percent to close at 16,058.35. This was after a US factory gauge showed a slump to over a two-year low, adding to jitters from a weak manufacturing data out of China.
Regional markets were also mostly sluggish in early trade on Wednesday but many reduced their losses, including Chinese equities. There was speculation in China that state-owned funds had intervened in the markets ahead of a holiday break.
At the local market, the financial, industrial, services and property counters slipped. The mining/oil counter rose by 2 percent while holding firms also firmed up.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.5 billion. There were 60 advancers which were overwhelmed by 107 decliners while 43 stocks were unchanged.
The PSEi was led lower by URC, the day’s most actively traded stock, which fell by 2.14 percent as the company downgraded sales growth guidance for this year. URC said in a recent call with investors that sales growth could be capped at 20 percent compared to the mid-20s growth level earlier projected, based on the company’s disclosure on Wednesday.
PLDT and ICTSI both slumped by over 1 percent.
Shares of ALI, SMIC, SM Prime, Globe, Metrobank, JG Summit and Bloomberry also declined.
On the other hand, Jollibee and Semirara rose by over 2 percent while AGI advanced by over 1 percent. AC, BDO and AP also gained.
Outside of PSEi stocks, the notable gainers were Nickel Asia (+8.68 percent) and Security Bank (+1.32 percent).