PSEi slips from year’s high

The local stock barometer shied away from this year’s peak on Friday as concerns over the execution of US president Donald Trump’s stimulus agenda and a terrorist attack in Barcelona soured investors’ appetite across regional markets.

Ending a four-day upswing, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 56.02 points or 0.69 percent to close at 8,016.73, tracking mostly sluggish regional markets. This was after hitting a new closing high for the year at 8,072.75 on Thursday.

For the week, the PSEi was still up by 144.32 points or 1.8 percent from last week’s finish of 7,928.43. The index had risen ahead of Thursday’s release of the country’s second quarter gross domestic product (GDP) report, which came in at 6.5 percent year-on-year growth or slightly above the market consensus of 6.4 percent.

Ahead of the long weekend break, however, investors chose to pocket gains.

“Sentiment has deteriorated on the headwinds US President Trump is facing and news of Barcelona attack,” Citi said in a research note.

In the US, Citi said “investors’ hopes for the US administration’s economic agenda had been further damaged.”

Meanwhile, at least 13 people were reportedly killed when a van rampaged in Barcelona. Islamic militant group ISIS has claimed responsibility for the attack.

At the local market, all counters fell except for the industrial counter.

Value turnover at the local bourse amounted to P5.39 billion. Foreigners were net buyers amounting to P64.49 million.

There were 107 decliners that outnumbered 74 advancers while 58 stocks were unchanged.

Investors pocketed gains from large cap stocks like GT Capital, Semirara and JG Summit, which all tumbled by over 2 percent. Security Bank, PLDT, Jollibee and SM Prime all declined by over 1 percent.

Shares of DMCI, BDO, AC and SM Investments also slipped.

On the other hand, URC rose by 1 percent while Metrobank, ICTSI, Meralco and BPI also firmed up.

Outside of the PSEi stocks, investors gobbled up shares of CEI and PXP, which respectively surged by 16.97 percent and 8.33 percent.

The PSEi is currently nearing the all-time high closing of 8,127.48 recorded on April 10, 2015.