PSEi slips below 7,300

The local stock barometer slipped below the 7,300 mark on Friday as investors pocketed gains after a four-day run-up, their risk appetite curbed by sluggish regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 76.57 points or 1.04 percent to close at 7,258.99. Regional markets were weighed down by the downturn in metal prices.

For the week, the index gained by a modest 14.2 points or 0.2 percent from last week’s finish of 7,244.79.

At the local market on Friday, all counters ended lower but the most battered was the mining/oil sector which slid by 2.87 percent. The property counter slipped by 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.4 billion. There was a modest net foreign buying of P54 million.

Market breadth was negative. There were 71 advancers which were overshadowed by 113 decliners while 51 stocks were unchanged.

Semirara tumbled by 5.37 percent even after 2016 results were slightly ahead of consensus estimates. Its net profit last year rose by 42 percent to P12.04 billion on record-high coal sales and contribution from its new power plant.

DMCI, Ayala Corp., PLDT, JG Summit, Metrobank, EDC and Security Bank all fell by over 1 percent.

Metrobank saw a 2.89 percent decline in net profit last year to P18.1 billion due to slower-than-expected growth in interest earnings, lower profit from sale of foreclosed assets and higher loan loss provisioning.

URC, BDO, GT Capital, Globe and ICTSI also contributed to the day’s decline.

BDO posted a record high net income of P26.1 billion last year, up by 4.4 percent and in line with the earnings goal for 2016.

Outside of the PSEi, RRHI also took a hit, declining by 1.43 percent.

On the other hand, SM Prime and Metro Pacific both slightly gained.

Citigroup said in a research on Friday that emerging market fund flows had benefited from the recent market rally. This asset class attracted a total inflow of $8.5 million over the past seven weeks. Technology and commodity stocks remain the most “underweighted” sectors or those where investors pare their position relative to the benchmark index.