Stock index falls below bull territory

The local stock barometer fell below bull territory on Wednesday as lack of any breakthrough during the recently concluded US-China trade talks spooked regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 104.66 points or 1.28 percent to close at 8,045.80 ahead of a closely watched US Federal Reserve meeting.

The market was bludgeoned by around P464.6 million in net foreign selling.

“Things are starting to appear a bit shaky for the PSEi ahead of the Fed’s decision as shown by its close (Tuesday), which showed some red technical flags. The index closed below its 20-day moving average for the very first time since it broke out from this resistance point mid-May 2019. Relative strength index also seems to be drifting lower after correcting from the overbought territory,” local stockbrokerage Papa Securities said.

The next support level is seen at the psychological 8,000 area.

Outside of the PSEi, among those that bucked the downturn were Pacific Online and Berjaya, which both rebounded by about 11 percent after Malacañang allowed the reopening of Philippine Charity Sweepstakes Office’s lotto operations.

On the key sub-indices, the property counter was the most battered, declining by 2.32 percent.

The industrial and holding firm counters both lost more than 1 percent, while the financial and services counters also both slipped.

The mining/oil counter ended marginally higher.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.45 billion. There were 137 decliners that overwhelmed 68 advancers, while 45 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was weighed down most by Gokongwei-led stocks URC and JG Summit, which slid,  respectively, by 4.72 percent and 3.33 percent.

SM Prime, Aboitiz Power and Megaworld all lost more than 2 percent, while SM, Globe and AEV all declined by over 1 percent.

Banking stocks BDO, BPI, Metrobank and Security Bank were also sluggish.

On the other hand, Jollibee continued to rebound, gaining 1.57 percent. Its founder Tony Tan Caktiong said he expected to turn around American food and beverage retailer Coffee Bean & Tea Leaf 12 to 18 months after Jollibee’s takeover.

First Gen and PLDT both added more than 1 percent while Ayala Corp. also firmed up.

Another notable gainer outside the PSEi was PXP, which surged by 10.82 percent.