PSEi slips on election, US Fed jitters

THE LOCAL stock barometer fell for the fourth straight session on Wednesday as domestic jitters escalated ahead of the presidential elections on May 9.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 31.39 points or 0.43 percent to close at 7,180.53. Elsewhere in the region, stocks markets were also mostly sluggish as investors awaited clues on the US Federal Reserve’s interest rate policy.

At the local market, all counters ended in the red but the most battered were the services and mining/oil counters.

Total value turnover for the day amounted to P6.33 billion. There were 142 decliners which overwhelmed 60 advancers while 36 stocks were unchanged.

Foreigners were on a net foreign buying for the day albeit at a modest amount of P159 million.

Dealers said investors were on a wait-and-see mode ahead of the presidential elections.

The main index decliners were AGI and Megaworld which both fell by over 3 percent while PLDT also tumbled by 1.99 percent.

SM Prime, AC, SMIC, MPI, Metrobank, AP and GTCAP all slipped.

Outside of the PSEi basket, IS slid by 17.65 percent while Xurpas also fell by 4.36 percent after key shareholders trimmed their interest.

On the other hand, URC, Globe and JG Summit eked out modest gains.

Retailer Puregold, which is not part of the PSEi, also gained by 1.11 percent.