PSEi slips on oil, US Fed jitters

THE LOCAL stock barometer slipped on Tuesday as jitters over oil prices and the upcoming speech of US Federal Reserve chief weighed down regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange shed 46.03 points or 0.58 percent to close at 7,935.18. Elsewhere in the region, risk-taking was curbed by the decline in oil prices. Investors were also cautious ahead of US Fed chief Janet Yellen’s speech at an upcoming forum in Jackson Hole, Wyoming on Friday.

At the local market, the decline was led by the industrial and services counters which both slipped by over 1 percent while the holding firms, mining/oil and property counters also declined. Only the financial counter was marginally up.

Value turnover was thin at P6.85 billion, still reflecting the cautious sentiment of the “ghost month.”

There were 72 advancers which were edged out by 117 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.

URC and PLDT were among the most battered, respectively declining by 3.56 percent and 2.44 percent. MPI, Globe Telecom and LTG were all down by over 1 percent.

SMIC, ALI, Metrobank and ICSTI all slipped.

Outside the PSEi, Security Bank (-0.19 percent), Cemex (-2.05 percent) and Vitarich (-1.23 percent) fell in heavy volume.

A number of non-PSEi stocks bucked the day’s downswing in heavy volume. One notable gainer was Calata, which rose by 28.16 percent following a deal with US firms to develop a P65-billion integrated gaming resort in Mactan, Cebu.

Nickel Asia rose by 5.76 percent while Cirtek and RRHI both firmed up by over 1 percent.