The local stock barometer slipped for the second straight session on Wednesday in the absence of fresh incentives for investors to pick up blue chips.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 15.26 points or 0.21 percent to close at 7,242.85, bucking the upswing across most stock markets in the region.
“Choppy trading could continue to be ahead of us in the near-term as the PSEi still struggles to find any significant catalyst enough to propel it past the 7,500 heavy resistance area,” local stock brokerage Papa Securities said.
“On the positive side, the 7,000 level appears to still be a strong enough support, so we still see it holding should the index see a continuation of the selling we’ve seen these past two days. US markets also offer little excitement with all three indices closing flattish last night—likely monitoring how global developments on the new COVID strain would develop in the coming weeks,” the brokerage added.
The local market was weighed down most by the property counter, which fell by 1.17 percent.
The industrial, holding firm and services counters all slipped by less than 1 percent.
The financial and mining/oil counters firmed up by 1.5 percent and 2.13 percent, respectively.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.17 billion. There was a modest net foreign selling of P25 million.
Despite the PSEi’s decline, there were more advancers (131) than decliners (105) in the market as investors focused mainly on speculative stocks.
The PSEi was weighed down most by Ayala Land, Ayala Corp. and URC, which all fell by over 2 percent.
SM Prime, Puregold and ICTSI all declined by over 1 percent.
Notable decliners outside the PSEi included Apollo Global, which slid by 5.62 percent. It was the most actively traded company for the day. AC Energy also declined by 4.62 percent in heavy volume.
On the other hand, Metrobank and Megaworld both advanced by over 3 percent, while SM Investments rose by 1.03 percent. BDO, PLDT and Jollibee all added less than 1 percent.
Meanwhile, domestic investors loaded up on Basic Energy, which surged by 48.94 percent upon resumption of trading of the company’s shares on the bourse.
Premiere Horizon and Metro Alliance racked up 20.85 percent and 21.65 percent, respectively.
—DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA