PSEi falls 0.83% on geopolitical jitters

The local stock barometer fell below the 8,000 mark yesterday as regional markets were spooked by reports of a ballistic missile fired by North Korea over Japan.

Reopening trading after a long weekend break, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 66.75 points or 0.83 percent to close at 7,948.39.   This tracked sluggish regional markets amid heightened geopolitical jitters.

The decline was led by services, which fell by 1.5 percent, The financial, industrial, holding firm and property counters all slipped.

Only the mining/oil counter ended modestly higher.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.87 billion.

There were 103 decliners that outnumbered 84 advancers while 51 stocks were unchanged.

Foreign investors were net sellers amounting to P19.37 million.

The PSEi was led lower by URC, which fell by 3.66 percent, while telecom firms Globe and PLDT both slipped by more than 2 percent.

Ayala Land, JG Summit, AGI, Bloomberry and Megaworld all declined by more than 1 percent. SM Prime, SM Investments, Metrobank, Jollibee, Security Bank and BPI also slipped.

On the other hand, BDO and GT Capital eked out modest gains. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA