PSEi, peso slip

The local stock barometer succumbed to profit-taking Wednesday after two days of post-election rally. It remained afloat, however, at the 7,300 mark.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSEi) index lost 71.48 points or 0.97 percent to end at 7,325.04 against a backdrop of mostly sluggish regional markets.

All counters tumbled but the most battered were the financial, industrial and mining/oil counters, which all fell by more than 1 percent.

Total value turnover amounted to P8.59 billion.  There were 81 advancers as against 105 decliners and 47 unchanged stocks.

Among PSEi stocks, Megaworld bucked the downturn with its 1.73 percent gain while AEV rose by 0.71 percent.

The peso, meanwhile, slid to 46.64:$1 following two straight days of gains after last Monday’s elections. It shed 9 centavos from Wednesday’s close of 46.55:$1.

The domestic currency reached an intraday high of 46.45:$1 and a low of 46.71:$1 after opening at 46.46:$1.

At the Philippine Dealing System, the total volume traded dropped to $730.25 million from $860 million on Wednesday. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla and Ben O. De Vera