The local stock barometer dipped on Tuesday, bucking mostly upbeat markets across the region.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 4.99 points or 0.07 percent to close at 7,198.45, declining for the third straight session.
“Local shares traded mostly negative intraday before closing flat without many catalysts and ahead of Joe Biden’s presidential inauguration,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.
The market was dragged down the most by the industrial and services counters, which fell by 1.74 percent and 1.05 percent, respectively.
The mining/oil and property counters also slipped.
On the other hand, the financial and holding firm counters both added less than 1 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P16 billion.
There were 114 advancers versus 115 decliners, while 44 stocks were unchanged.
PLDT fell by 2.74 percent while Globe Telecom and Jollibee lost over 1 percent. Property giant SM Prime shed 0.51 percent.
Outside the PSEi, notable decliners included MerryMart, which fell by 5.51 percent, while Basic Energy and Dito both declined by nearly 5 percent.
SM Investments rose by 2.1 percent while its banking arm, BDO, added 1.37 percent.
Ayala Corp. and Puregold both added less than 1 percent.
Speculative stocks continued to dominate the day’s trades, with companies like Apollo Global, Abra Mining, MRC Allied and Premiere Horizon being the top four traded companies. Their share prices surged by 19.67 percent, 44.74 percent, 15.79 percent and 8.39 percent, respectively.
Meanwhile, Abacore and Oriental Petroleum both surged by 50 percent in heavy volume, while AC Energy added 0.61 percent. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA INQ