PSEi slips ahead of long weekend

THE LOCAL stock barometer tumbled for the seventh straight day on Friday as investors turned cautious ahead of a long weekend break while US interest rate jitters continued to gnaw on risk appetite across the region.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 40.34 points or 0.54 percent to close at 7,404.80.

For the week, the PSEi shed a total of 245.42 points or 3.2 percent as investors pocketed gains from last week’s two-day rally triggered by euphoria over Pres. Duterte’s state visit to China.

“The ghosts from the US continue to haunt the market. Rate jitters and strong dollar caused most markets to take a dip,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director at local fund management firm First Grade Finance.


”The long weekend triggered some funds to shift to other investment instruments and markets for the mean time. We expect the brave souls
to take over the market next week and hunt for bargains,” he said.

On Friday, the index fell to as low as 7,317.72 in intra-day trade but pared some of its losses in the afternoon.

“At 7,300, PSEi is hard to ignore. The blood in the streets are too tempting,” Del Castillo said.

Value turnover for the day amounted to around P9 billion. There were 66 advancers which were overwhelmed by 117 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.

Most counters were in the red. The most battered were the financial, mining/oil and property counters which all slumped by over 1 percent.

Only the holding firm counter ended slightly higher.

Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Securities, said the sell-off continued as investors had taken precaution ahead of the latest US gross domestic product (GDP) data to be released on Friday night.

“In addition, the long holiday increased the demand to remain liquid for many funds,” Limlingan said.

The PSEi was weighed down most by Metrobank, which fell by 4.58 percent after reporting a 4.9 percent drop in nine-month net profit. The bank was the most actively traded stock for the day.

ALI, AC and Jollibee likewise all fell by over 2 percent while PLDT, SMIC, Globe and Megaworld all tumbled by over 1 percent.

SM Prime, BPI and Security Bank also lost ground for the day.

On the other hand, JG Summit and AEV firmed up by over 1 percent while URC and GTCAP also gained.