PSEi slips to 8,500

The local stock barometer slipped to the 8,500 mark on Thursday as investors continued to price in the impact of rising inflation and interest rates.

Tracking the overnight slump in Wall Street, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 98.08 points or 1.14 percent to close at 8,515.57.

The index was dragged down most by the holding firm, mining/oil and property counters, which all fell by over 1 percent. The financial and industrial counters also slipped.

Only the services counter modestly gained.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P10.45 billion. Net foreign selling amounted to P389.87 million.

There were 136 decliners that edged out 77 advancers while 49 stocks were unchanged.

Investors unloaded shares of conglomerates SM Investments and Metro Pacific, which both fell by over 3 percent, while Ayala Corp. slid by 2 percent.

Ayala Land, Metrobank, BPI and AGI all declined by over 1 percent.

SM Prime, URC, PLDT and RRHI also slipped.

Outside of PSEi stocks, there was heavy selling on PXP, which fell by 11 percent as investors who rode on a Philippine-China exploration play pocketed gains.

Bloomberry shares also fell by 0.85 percent.

Meanwhile, Philweb Corp. gained 15.99 percent on news that the Philippine Amusement & Gaming Corp. had approved its request to deploy its Electronic Gaming System (EGS) to an additional 21 gaming sites nationwide which will require conversion from Instawin EGS to PhilWeb’s EGS.

Villar-led firms Starmalls and Golden Haven surged by 12.39 percent and 11.11 percent, respectively.