PSEi pulls back to 7,700

The local stock barometer slid back to the 7,700 level on Wednesday as domestic investors pocketed recent gains while foreign players scouted for bargains.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index tumbled by 129.33 points or 1.63 percent to close at 7,794.17 as investors sold down “overbought” stocks.

Local stock brokerage Papa Securities said in a research report that the PSEi was seeing a short-term pullback on based on a bearish chart formation. This is a time for investors to buy on dips, the brokerage said.

“Price action shows a bearish dark cloud cover candlestick formation; this signals a short-term pullback,” Papa Securities said. Further supporting this view is the relative strength index which was now in overbought levels, the brokerage added.

Papa Securities said the next support is at 7,704 while the resistance is from 8,049 to 8,263.

At the local market, all counters fell on Friday but the most battered was the holding firm sub-index which slumped by 2.35 percent while the financial and industrial counters both declined by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P10.46 billion. While domestic players locked up profits, foreign players were net buyers in the market amounting to P540.22 million.

There were 133 decliners that edged out 78 advancers while 35 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was weighed down most by GT Capital which slid by 4.62 percent while SM Investments, Jollibee and Megaworld all fell by over 3 percent.

Investors also sold down shares of Ayala Corp., BDO, Globe, URC and JG Summit while SM Prime and MPI also slipped.

On the other hand, ICTSI and Semirara both gained over 1 percent while Ayala Land, the day’s most actively traded company, added 0.52 percent.

Notable gainers outside the PSEi included Arthaland, which rose by 3.6 percent, along with Pilipinas Shell which added 0.9 percent.

Arthaland received good tidings from the strong first quarter earnings performance of two other publicly-listed companies led by the Po family – Shakey’s Pizza Asia Ventures Inc. and Century Pacific Food.