Industrial counter weighs down index

The local stock barometer slipped 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 of the European Central Bank and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.

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 hit to P6.62 billion.

There was net foreign buying amounting to P234 million.

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 more than 2 percent, while URC, Metrobank, BDO and AEV all declined by more than 1 percent.  AC, GTCAP and AP also slipped.

One notable decliner outside the PSEi was Xurpas which tumbled by 4.9 percent. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla