PSEi falls to 7,500 level

THE LOCAL stock barometer pulled back to the 7,500 level on Friday as regional markets traded with caution ahead of US jobs data release.

Declining for the third straight session, the Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 41.87 points or 0.55 percent to close at 7,578.29. For the week, the index shed a total of 78.84 points or 1 percent.

Elsewhere in the region, stock markets were mostly lower ahead of the release of the US payrolls data, which in turn could influence the timing of the next US interest rate increase.

At the local market, the decline was led by the services counter which fell by 1.51 percent. The financial, industrial, mining/oil and property counters also slipped.

The holding firm counter slightly gained.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.02 billion. There were 103 decliners that edged out 72 advancers while 57 stocks were unchanged.

The market was weighed down by around P246 million in net foreign selling.

The PSEi was led lower by Globe which fell by 4.16 percent while Megaworld slid by 3.64 percent.

Jollibee fell by 2.07 percent while ALI, PLDT and BPI all slipped by over 1 percent.

Ayala Corp., BDO, URC, LTG and JG Summit also slipped.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable decliner was Philweb, which dropped by 3.88 percent. The buyer of businessman Roberto Ongpin’s majority stake in seeking an exemption from the tender offer ahead of the consummation of the buyout deal.

Meanwhile, MPI and SM Prime bucked the day’s downturn, both rising by over 1 percent. GT Capital, SMIC and Petron also firmed up./rga