PH stocks slip ahead of US jobs data

THE LOCAL stock barometer ended the week on a sluggish note ahead of the upcoming US jobs data that could influence the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate lift-off.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 4.25 points or 0.06 percent to close at 7,118.20 on Friday, declining for the third straight session.

Elsewhere in the region, stock markets mostly traded with caution on rising expectations that the US Fed may increase interest rate as early as next month and that the US jobs data may seal the deal.

The decline was led by services which fell by 1.41 percent while the industrial and mining/oil counters were also sluggish.

On the other hand, the financial counter was up by1.13 percent while the property counter slightly gained.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P5.04 billion. There were 59 advancers which were edged out by 94 decliners while 57 stocks were unchanged.

PLDT led the market lower, tumbling by 3.62 percent while EDC also slid by 1.23 percent.

AC, GTCAP, SMIC, AGI, MPI, JG Summit and Megaworld also ended lower.

On the other hand, DMCI gained by 4.8 percent while Metrobank rose by 2.37 percent. BDO was up by 1.8 percent.