PSEi starts 2020 on a sour note

Stock trading started this new year on a gloomy note as President Duterte’s fresh rants against Metro Manila’s water concessionaires dampened investor interest.

Manila Water, the day’s most actively traded company, tumbled by 6.37 percent to close at P9.70 a share. This ended the recovery seen in the past three trading days.

This was after Mr. Duterte threatened to charge water concessionaires Manila Water and Maynilad Water Services with syndicated estafa, a nonbailable offense.

Although Manila Water is not part of the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi), the fresh rants affected companies that control these two concessionaires as well as other related companies.

Overall, the main-share PSEi lost 72.73 points or 0.93 percent to close at 7,742.53.

About P852.2 million worth of foreign funds flowed out of the local stock market.

The index fell to as low as 7,643.98 in intraday trading.

Manila Water’s parent firm Ayala Corp. fell by 1.97 percent, while Maynilad’s parent firm Metro Pacific Investments Corp. lost 3.45 percent.

Affiliate firms like Ayala’s property arm, Ayala Land, were also dragged down. Ayala Land fell by 1.32 percent.

Other key index decliners included Security Bank, which lost 4.31 percent.

JG Summit and AGI both declined by over 3 percent, while BDO, URC and Megaworld all fell by over 2 percent.

Metrobank lost 1.96 percent while Jollibee slipped by 1.39 percent. SM Investments slipped by 0.38 percent.

On the other hand, ICTSI and DMCI both added over 1 percent. DMCI is also a key investor at Maynilad, but its shares have stabilized as related entities bought back shares from the market.

SM Prime, PLDT, Puregold and BPI also slightly gained.—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla