PSEi retreats to 7,800 level

The local stock barometer pulled back sharply on Friday as foreign investors resumed their selldown of local equities.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slid by 143.09 points or 1.78 percent to close at 7,899.98. Regional markets were mixed but trade war tensions started to ease.

For the four-day trading week, the index lost 45.68 points from the previous week’s finish of 7,945.66.

All counters ended lower, but the most battered was the holding firm counter which fell by 2.87 percent as investors sold down shares of SM Investments and Metro Pacific, which both slid by over 4 percent.

The property counter faltered by 1.72 percent.

There were 134 decliners that overwhelmed 76 advancers while 43 stocks were unchanged.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6 billion. Sentiment was weighed down by foreign selling, which netted P829.5 million for the day, reversing the modest net foreign buying seen in the previous day.

Shares of Ayala Land, Ayala Corp. and Jollibee all tumbled by over 2 percent while SM Prime, BPI, GT Capital and JG Summit all lost over 1 percent.

BDO, Meralco, AEV and URC also slipped.

There was likewise profit-taking outside of PSEi stocks. Now Corp. went down by 5.03 percent while PXP fell by 4.43 percent.

On the other hand, Metrobank bucked the day’s downturn with its 2.14-percent rise.

One notable gainer outside the PSEi was Vitarich, which rallied by 15.13 percent.

Bloomberry extended Thursday’s upswing with its 0.47-percent gain.