PSEi slips below 7,500

THE LOCAL stock barometer slipped on Thursday as investors locked up gains from large-cap stocks when the main index breached the 7,500 mark.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 36.2 points or 0.48 percent to close at 7,464.59, reversing gains seen early in the session.

Across the region, trading sentiment was mixed ahead of a meeting by the European Central Bank and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC).

The index was weighed down by the industrial counter which fell by 1.08 percent while the financial, holding firm and services counters also slipped. The mining/oil and property counters were modestly up.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.62 billion. There was net foreign buying amounting to P234 million for the day.

Despite the PSEi’s decline, market breadth was positive: there were 100 advancers that edged out 80 decliners while 51 stocks were unchanged. This means that while investors were cautious on large caps, investors were still upbeat on second and third-liner stocks.

The PSEi was weighed down by Globe, Jollibee and SMIC which all fell by over 2 percent while URC, Metrobank, BDO and AEV all declined by over 1 percent. AC, GTCAP and AP also slipped.

One notable decliner outside the PSEi was Xurpas which tumbled by 4.9 percent.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s decline was mitigated by SM Prime’s 2.06 percent gain while JG Summit, PLDT, ALI, MPI and BPI all posted modest gains.

Security Bank – recently included in the closely tracked MSCI Philippines index, through still not part of PSEi – gained 1.1 percent while Cebu Air rose by 1.69 percent.