PSEi declines 0.36% on US-China trade jitters, index rebalancing

The local stock barometer slipped yesterday as investors braced for an upcoming index rebalancing while fresh US-China trade jitters gripped regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 29.41 points, or 0.36 percent, to close at 8,070.89.

For the four-day trading week, which was shortened by the new Lunar Year turnover celebration, the PSEi lost 73.27 points, or 0.9 percent.

The financial, industrial, services, mining/oil and property counters all slipped.

The holding firm was the only subindex that gained, albeit by a meager 0.22 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.81 billion. Foreign investors continued to pick up local stocks, resulting in net foreign buying of P272.66 million.

There were 119 decliners that edged out 98 advancers, while 34 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was weighed down most by Petron, which slid by 6 percent after the Philippine Stock Exchange announced that it would be stricken off the PSEi effective Feb. 18.

Petron will be replaced by Bloomberry, which surged by 4.33 percent.

PLDT also fell by 3.35 percent.

Jollibee went down by 2.11 percent, while BPI and Meralco both slipped by over 1 percent.

On the other hand, Ayala Land, BDO, SM Prime, Ayala Corp. and AGI all faltered.

Outside of the PSEi, notable decliners included PHA, which fell by 8.03 percent.

Cemex also shed 4.26 percent after reporting a larger fourth quarter net loss of P325 million versus a net loss of P21.9 million a year ago.

Meanwhile, ICTSI rose by 2.61 percent, while SM Investments advanced by 1 percent.

JG Summit and Metrobank both firmed up.

Another notable gainer outside the PSEi was Vista Land, which surged by 5 percent.

Greenergy rose by 1.9 percent.