PSEi slips in slow trade

The local stock barometer slipped Friday ahead of the closely watched US jobs data, from which investors hope to find clues on the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate liftoff.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 40.33 points or 0.59 percent to close at 6,850.61, declining for the second straight session.

For the week, the PSEi lost 66.94 points or nearly 1 percent from last week’s closing of 6,917.55.

Elsewhere in the region, trading sentiment was mixed. In particular, Chinese stocks listed in Hong Kong rallied on reports of fresh government support measures.

Across the region, investors awaited the September US payrolls report, which may affect the timing of the US Fed’s prospective increase in interest rates. The Fed liftoff, which did not happen as earlier expected in September due to the stock market rout in China, has been causing a lot of global market uncertainties.

At the local market, the day’s decline was led by the services and mining/oil counters. Only the industrial counter was up slightly. Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.34 billion. There were 72 advancers, which were outnumbered by 92 decliners, while 40 stocks were unchanged.

Index heavyweights PLDT and SMIC along with LTG weighed down the PSEi the most, all of them sliding by more than 2 percent. ALI and Metrobank lost more than 1 percent while GTCAP, AC, JG Summit, SMPH and Globe all slipped.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable decliner was Ionics, which fell 11 percent after rising steeply in previous weeks. On the other hand, EDC rose 4.25 percent while URC, AGI, Meralco, BPI, Jollibee and AEV all advanced.

There was P38 million in net foreign buying for the day. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla