Philippine stocks succumb to profit-taking

MANILA, Philippines – Most local stock prices fell on Friday, dragging the index below 4,300, as lingering global economic woes provided an excuse for investors to pocket gains after a two-day run-up.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 27.36 points or 0.63 percent to finish at 4,297.62.  The index nonetheless showed a modest advance of 0.5 percent for the week, reflecting resilience to sluggish overseas markets.

The high-flying mining/oil counter took the worst beating, falling by 1.88 percent as the share prices of leading players Lepanto “A” (open only to local investors) and Philex tumbled.   However, Lepanto “B” shares (open to both local and foreign investors) bucked the downturn.

Only the financial sub-index stayed afloat for the day, aided by the gains of Metrobank, Security Bank and Banco de Oro.  Security Bank recently announced the acquisition of thrift bank Premiere Development Bank, signifying its intention to scale up its branch network and lending portfolio.

The index stocks that dragged down the PSEi aside from key mining issues were PLDT, AGI, DMCI, Aboitiz Power, Megaworld, Ayala Land, FLI, Metro Pacific Investments and First Gen.

Non-index stock San Miguel Corp. was the most actively traded stock for the third straight session, rising by 2.27 percent to P116.90, further appreciating from P110 per share at which secondary shares were sold to the public last month.

Shares of AgriNurture likewise gained in heavy volume on the local stock market.

Turnover increased to P5.4 billion from the previous day’s P4.8 billion.  There were 57 advancers as against 72 decliners and 44 unchanged stocks.

Overnight, the Dow Jones index was down by 41.59 points or 0.34 percent to 12,248.55 as Wall Street braced for a sluggish jobs data given the slow US economic growth.