Syria jitters curb PSEi’s rise

Key indices

The local stock barometer rallied to the 7,600 mark on Friday but pared gains at close as investors turned jittery following America’s military air strike against Syria.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 18.43 points or 0.24 percent to close at 7,583.75.

The index hit as high as 7,667.33 but ended closer to the day’s low of 7,553.52.

“It looks like it was risk-off today, as investors cashed out due to concerns of a retaliation against the US’ missile strike in Syria. While we ended up, it was way off the intra-day high of 7,667 – also the year-to-date high,” said Manny Lisbona, president of PNB Securities.

“Next week might see continued weakness, the magnitude of which will depend on what happens next between the US and Syria. Note that next week is also a short week, so trading will likely be subdued,” he added.

The US’ air strike against Syria, the first direct offensive against the regime of Bashar al-Assad, was in retaliation for a chemical weapons attack in Idlib.

Despite the subdued closing, foreign investors remained net buyers in the stock market amounting to P1.55 billion for the day.

The day’s gains modest gains were led by the holding firm, services, mining/oil and property counters. On the other hand, the financial and industrial counters declined.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.74 billion.

There were 93 advancers that edged out 80 decliners while 63 stocks were unchanged.

The day’s biggest PSEi gainers included Megaworld, which surged by 6.2 percent while Jollibee added 5.2 percent.

GT Capital, JG Summit and MPI were all up by over 2 percent while Security Bank and AGI both gained 1 percent.

Metrobank and PLDT also contributed gains.

On the other hand, URC tumbled by 5.44 percent after reporting a decline in profits while ICTSI fell by 2.2 percent.

BDO slipped by 1.15 percent while SM Prime, BPI, Puregold and Ayala Corp. also declined.