Wall Street woes, profit taking pull down PH index

The local stock barometer slipped on Thursday, weighed down by the overnight slump in Wall Street and some profit taking.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 35.43 points or 0.43 percent to close at 8,267.92.

“Both Philippine and US stock market indices ended lower on a rather sluggish week once again. As for the United States, this was amid disappointing earnings results,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

The PSEi was weighed down by the holding firm, services, mining/oil and property counters while the financial and industrial counters firmed up.

Value turnover for the day stood at P4.72 billion.

Foreign investors were net sellers, resulting in an outflow of P817.63 million for the day.

There were 102 decliners that edged out 77 advancers while 58 stocks were unchanged.

Investors sold down shares of Metro Pacific, which slid by 3.63 percent.

Ayala Land, SM Investments and PLDT all tumbled by over 1 percent while Ayala Corp., Globe Telecom and AGI also slipped.

Among the notable decliners were PXP Energy (-5.34 percent) and integrated gaming resort developer Bloomberry (-4.67 percent).

On the other hand, URC and Meralco both added over 1 percent.

BDO, BPI and Megaworld also firmed up.

The 8,500 level has so far proven to be a strong resistance level for the PSEi.