The local stock barometer slid to the 7,700 level on Tuesday as foreign selling resumed while investors priced in the final wave of local corporate earnings reports.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) tumbled by 146.86 points or 1.87 percent to close at 7,723.39.
All counters ended lower but the financial and mining counters were the most battered, both declining by over 2 percent.
The industrial, holding firm, service and property counters all declined.
Total value turnover stood at P7 billion. There were 161 decliners that edged out 57 advancers while 34 stocks were unchanged. Net foreign selling for the day amounted to P453.84 million, reversing the previous day’s modest foreign buying of P139 million.
One notable decliner was Puregold, which slid by 9.14 percent as investors priced in disappointing fourth quarter 2017 earnings results and slower sales guidance for 2018. This was the day’s most actively traded company.
During the quarter, Puregold’s net income grew by 3.2 percent year-on-year to P1.9 billion, bringing full-year bottom line to P5.8 billion or 5.7 percent higher.
“Results underperformed both COL and consensus estimates, accounting for 96.8 percent and 96.2 percent of full-year forecasts, respectively,” stock brokerage COL Financial said. “The underperformance was mainly due to higher operating expenses amid Puregold’s faster store expansion in fourth quarter 2017.”
Meanwhile, COL noted that Puregold’s guidance for 2018 was a slower sales growth of 6-8 percent versus 8-10 percent in 2017.
Investors also sold down shares of URC and Megaworld, which both fell by over 4 percent, while Ayala Corp., BDO and BPI all declined by over 3 percent.
PLDT, JG Summit and Metro Pacific all fell by over 2 percent, while Jollibee, Metrobank, SM Prime, SM Investments and Globe all lost over 1 percent. Ayala Land slipped by 0.63 percent.
Meanwhile, notable advancers were non-PSE stocks. Vitarich gained 12.83 percent while Bloomberry and Megawide both firmed up.