PH equities down on continued profit-taking

The local stock barometer faltered on Friday as investors reassessed gains from the recent run-up to all-time highs.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 66.42 points or 0.78 percent to close at 8,420.95, weighed down by heavy foreign selling.

For the week, the index shed 26.99 points or 0.32 percent.

In recent days, the PSEi had hit record highs, testing 8,500 in intraday trade.

On Oct. 17, the main index hit an intraday peak of 8,586.73 while record finish was at 8,497.74.

After the recent rally driven by strong liquidity and optimism ahead of third quarter local corporate earnings reports, dealers said it was time to pocket some gains.

All indices fell during the day, led by the mining/oil and industrial counters, which both slid by over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P10.16 billion. There was P1.95 billion worth of net foreign selling for the day.

There were 124 decliners that edged out 72 advancers while 49 stocks were unchanged.

Investors sold down shares of Ayala Corp., which fell by 4.12 percent.

BDO, URC, Semirara and GT Capital all slipped by over 2 percent. Puregold dropped by 1.64 percent.

PLDT, Ayala Land, SM Prime and Globe Telecom all slipped.

Outside of the PSEi, notable decliners included Pilipinas Shell (-3.47 percent), RCBC (-1.16 percent) and MacroAsia (-0.83 percent).

On the other hand, Meralco, Metrobank and SM Investments firmed up.

Among non-PSEi stocks, PNB and Lopez gained in heavy volume.