PSEi loses tight grip of 7,700 mark

The local stock barometer pulled back sharply on Thursday, sliding back to the 7,500 level, as investors pocketed gains amid valuation jitters and weak regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gave up 186.14 points or 2.41 percent to close at 7,536.65 as investors secured gains from rich valuations of equities.

The index was moving at the 7,700 level in the last few trading days.

The decline was led by the financial, holding firms, services and property counters, which all tumbled by more than 2 percent. The industrial counter also declined by more than 1 percent.

Only the mining/oil counter emerged unscathed, rising by 2.28 percent.

Investors sold down shares of SM Prime, MPI and ICTSI, which all tumbled by over 4 percent. PLDT, BDO and AC also declined by over 3 percent.

ALI, JG Summit, Metrobank and AEV all fell by over 2 percent while URC, GTCAP, Jollibee and FGEN all declined by over 1 percent.  SMIC and Petron also slipped.

Bloomberry bucked the day’s downturn as it rose 8.13 percent while Megaworld was up by 1.12 percent. Doris Dumlao-Abadilla