China’s cooling economy puts a dampener on PSEi, regional markets

The local stock barometer ended flat on Friday as a string of weak economic data out of China spooked regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 1.45 points, or 0.02 percent to close at 7,524.37, while most other stock markets ended mostly lower.

For the week, the PSEi went up by 63.31 points, or 0.8 percent from last week’s closing.

The services counter, which added 1.33 percent, kept the index afloat on Friday. The industrial counter rose by 0.79 percent.

The financial, holding firm, mining/oil and property counters all declined.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.85 billion.

There was net foreign selling of P691 million for the day.

There were 100 advancers that edged out 79 decliners, while 42 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was shored up by Meralco, which rose by 3.95 percent, while ICTSI and JG Summit both added over 2 percent.

Jollibee and Metro Pacific gained over 1 percent, while Metrobank, AGI, BPI and PLDT also firmed up.

One notable gainer outside the PSEi included Bloomberry, which surged by 12.19 percent.

On the other hand, San Miguel Corp. lost another 3.4 percent. This is still due to jitters arising from news that the Sandiganbayan had denied for lack of merit the appeals of coco levy companies against the enforcement of the Supreme Court’s 2012 ruling that these coco levy assets worth P83 billion belonged to the government for the benefit of coconut farmers.

Ayala Corp. slipped by 1.77 percent while SM Prime, Ayala Land, Puregold, BDO, SM Investments and RLC all dipped.

Since the start of the year, the PSEi has declined by a total of 1,034.05 points, or 12 percent from last year’s finish of 8,558.42, mostly due to domestic inflation concerns. The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas has since then jacked up key interest rates by a total of 175 basis points in a span of seven months.