The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed lower yesterday as investors pocketed profits amid recent gains.
The PSEi ended Friday’s session lower by 0.8 percent, or 62.57 points, to 7,740.74. Factors that came into play were a report earlier in the day that the April trade deficit had more than doubled to $3.62 billion and the difficulty staying above the 7,800 psychological barrier.
Despite the pullback on Friday, the PSEi was up around 3.24 percent week-on-week.
The decline was broad-based, with the all-shares index also dropping by 0.72 percent, or 33.76 points, to 4,690.10.
In a sea of red, only the services sector closed up by 0.21 percent. Decliners in the subindex category were led by property, down 1.14 percent, followed by holding firms, down by 1.12 percent and financials, which sank 0.86 percent.
Trading was relatively thin, with 826.8 million shares valued at P5.28 billion changing hands. Losers outnumbered gainers 116 to 83 while 41 companies closed unchanged.
Ayala Corp., which lost 1.43 percent to P966.50 per share, was the most actively traded yesterday. It was followed by Metropolitan Bank & Trust, down 3.09 percent to P80; GT Capital Holdings, down 1.67 percent to P1,000; Ayala Land Inc., down 2.39 percent to P40.80, and BDO Unibank Inc., up 0.07 percent to P137.10 per share.
Other actively traded companies were SM Prime Holdings Inc., down 0.66 percent to P37.70; International Container Terminal Services, down 0.06 percent to P86.95; NOW Corp., down 4.88 percent to P9.95; Universal Robina Corp., up 0.85 percent to P131, and JG Summit Holdings, down 1.17 percent to P59.35 per share.