PH shares close flat; index stays above 8,500

The local stock barometer yesterday ended flat but stayed above the 8,500 mark following the previous day’s run-up to a new record high.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 1.26 points or 0.02 percent to close at 8,521.81 as investors digested the fresh stream of third quarter local corporate earnings reports.

The market was weighed down by the industrial, holding firm and mining/oil counters.

On the other hand, the financial, services and property counters firmed up.

Total value turnover for the day amounted to P7.02 billion.

There were 104 decliners that edged out 87 advancers while 53 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was weighed down by URC, which fell by 4.12 percent after reporting a 21.8-percent drop in nine-month profits to P8.21 billion.

URC has grappled with intense competition gnawing on its coffee business alongside lower foreign exchange gains and higher finance costs.

SM Investments also slipped by 2.3 percent while RRHI fell by 1.05 percent ahead of the release of their respective third quarter results.

Shares of Ayala Corp., DMCI, Meralco and Metro Pacific also dipped.

On the other hand, SMC gained 7.49 percent as investors cheered a plan to consolidate its food and beverage businesses into subsidiary Purefoods, which however slipped by 1.52 percent on profit-taking after the 50-percent surge on Monday.

Metrobank gained 3.24 percent. The bank earlier reported that it had grown its nine-month net profit by 4.87 percent year-on-year to P13.19 billion on higher earnings from core lending activities.

ALI rose by 1.33 percent after reporting an 18-percent rise in nine-month net profit to P17.8 billion, which was on track with expectations.

Shares of Jollibee, GT Capital, Globe and SM Prime also firmed up.

Outside of PSEi stocks, notable gainers included Bloomberry (+1.97 percent) and Cemex (+2.58 percent).