The local stock barometer slipped on Tuesday as investors turned jittery on prospects for economic recovery even as global distribution of the coronavirus vaccine was in sight.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gave up 46.68 points or 0.64 percent to close at 7,258.11, in line with mostly sluggish regional markets.
“The PSEi ended lower as the sentiment continues to grow increasingly cautious. It failed to stay above the 7,300 level, further confirming how strong the resistance level is,” said Christoper Mangun, head of research at local stock brokerage AAA Equities.
Trading volumes remained high with turnover value at P9.41 billion although this was mainly due to the high volatility and trading of second-liners and speculative issues while trading on blue chips was muted, Mangun noted.
“There was temporary optimism at the beginning of the year but the uncertainty of what is going to happen with the global economy is spooking investors. This trend may last for a few weeks until several internal and external concerns are addressed. We may see the main index continue lower towards the 7,000 support level,” he said.
All counters ended lower, led by the financial, industrial, services and mining/oil counters, which all declined by over 1 percent.
The holding firm and property counters both slipped by less than 1 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.74 billion. There was net foreign selling of a P25 million.
There were 144 decliners that outnumbered 86 advancers, while 40 stocks were unchanged.
With foreign investors still staying out of the game, stocks outside the PSEi continued to be the more actively traded in the market, although many had pulled back after the upswing in previous days.
The most actively traded company was Apollo Global, which lost 4.23 percent, followed by AC Energy, which lost 9.97 percent, and Dito which fell by 5.68 percent.
MRC Allied, MerryMart, Cirtek and Abra Mining were also all actively traded, respectively declining by 1.37 percent, 5.71 percent, 2.31 percent and 5.71 percent.
Within the PSEi basket, the notable decliners included Metrobank, which fell by 5 percent, followed by Puregold, which lost 3.99 percent.
PLDT and Megaworld both lost over 2 percent, while BPI shed over 1 percent.
SM Prime, Jollibee and Globe Telecom all slipped by less than 1 percent. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA INQ