The country’s stock barometer slipped below the 7,300 mark on Thursday as profit-taking took a second day.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 57.27 points or 0.78 percent to close at 7,264.55. Trading sentiment was mixed as US President-elect Donald Trump’s first press briefing Wednesday night (Philippine time) did not produce any clarity in terms of policies.
“The market took on a selling position after President-elect Trump gave his press conference of the year. Since the unexpected victory of Donald Trump in the US presidential election, financial markets have had to reassess their expectations on a wide range of policy issues,” said Regina Capital managing director Luis Gerardo Limlingan.
Limlingan also noted the market was still waiting for further economic data out of the US and the Eurozone.
At the local market, all counters ended in the red led by the services counter, which fell by 2.11 percent; while the property counter went down by 1.44 percent.
Total value turnover for the day amounted to P5.95 billion. There were 113 decliners that overwhelmed 69 decliners; while 61 stocks were unchanged.
Investors dumped shares of PLDT, which fell by 4.15 percent on news that rival Globe has overtaken it in terms of wireless phone subscriber base.
SM Prime, Megaworld, EDC and Jollibee all declined by over 2 percent, while Metrobank fell by 1.51 percent.
BDO, SMIC, ALI, BPI, MPI and JG Summit also contributed to the decline.
Universal Robina and Aboitiz Power bucked the downturn, both rising by over 1 percent.
Outside of the PSEi, one notable gainer was D&L Industries, which gained 1.61 percent in heavy volume.