PSEi tumbles following Wall Street bloodbath

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) fell on Thursday, mirroring the rest of the region after the bloodbath in Wall Street overnight as the United States recorded a recent surge in COVID-19 cases.

By the closing bell yesterday, the PSEi was down 2.01 percent, or 128.4 points, to 6,249.39 while the broader all-shares index lost 1.45 percent, or 55.21 points, to 3,753.08.

This came as US stocks suffered their worst one-day drop since June as new coronavirus cases raised the spectre of another round of lockdowns.

Negative sentiments carried over to Asian and Philippine equities, with all subsectors closing in negative territory on Thursday.

The biggest losers were mining and oil, down 2.61 percent, and financials, down 2.43 percent. Services were also down 2.1 percent, followed by holding firms, which sank 1.88 percent.

A total of 3.36 billion shares valued at P6.65 billion changed hands on Thursday. There were 147 decliners versus only 58 gainers while 52 companies closed unchanged.

Dito CME Holdings Corp. was the most actively traded as it rose 2.27 percent to P6.77 per share.

It was followed by BDO Unibank Inc., down 3.26 percent to P89, Converge ICT Solutions, up 8.91 percent to P15.16, Ayala Land Inc., down 4.87 percent to P32.20, and SM Prime Holdings, up 0.92 percent to P32.80 per share. —MIGUEL R. CAMUS