Stocks slip for 3rd consecutive day

AFP FILE PHOTO

The local stock barometer tumbled for the third straight session Friday as weak oil prices gnawed at regional sentiment.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 72.17 points or 1.03 percent to close at 6,921.93, tracking sluggish regional markets. There was net foreign selling amounting to P930 million at the local bourse for the day.

Week-on-week, the local index was flat compared to the closing rate of 6,927.07 last week.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc., said the day’s decline was mostly due to overseas jitters.

Regional markets tracked the overnight downturn in Wall Street caused by the decline in oil prices, seen as an indicator of a sluggish global economy.

In a research note, Citigroup noted that the European Central Bank had “delivered much less additional easing than markets had been expecting, and failed even to signal more easing in future meetings.” As such, Citi said investors should exercise caution.

By the middle of this month, investors expect the US Federal Reserve to start raising interest rates for the first time in about a decade.

Locally, the country’s inflation rate in November came in at 1.1 percent year-on-year or higher than market consensus of 0.9 percent. This affirmed expectations that inflation rate had bottomed out at 0.4 percent in October.

Value turnover was thin at P4.96 billion. There were more than twice as many decliners (112) as advancers (50).

Investors sold down shares of SMPH which fell by 3.84 percent while AC, GTCAP, BPI, PLDT, SMIC, ALI, RLC, Globe, Megaworld and ICTSI all slumped by over 1 percent.

URC, BDO, EDC and MPI also contributed to the decline.

Metrobank was among the few that bucked the day’s downturn, rising by 1.85 percent. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla