The stock barometer slipped on Monday as investors reassessed gains from last week’s rally while the market awaited the landmark listing of food manufacturing giant Monde Nissin Corp.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 46.02 points, or 0.69 percent, to close on Monday at 6,628.49 in thin trade. As some of investors’ funds had gone to the initial public offering (IPO) of Monde Nissin Corp., liquidity was tight.
“Philippine shares closed lower after several days of successive gains last week as the index consolidated in the 6,500 to 6,700 range,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.
“There was also a lack of leads with the US being closed for Memorial Day [on Monday’s session]. Furthermore, investors are waiting for the maiden listing of consumer heavyweight Monde Nissin, which lists [Tuesday] to kick-start the month of June,” Limlingan said.
Monde Nissin Corp. raised P48.6 billion from its IPO, the largest in the history of the local stock market and the biggest equity deal out of the Southeast Asian food and beverage space. If the overallotment option were to be exercised within 30 days from the listing day, the equity deal could increase to P55.89 billion.
Limlingan said many investors were also assessing the latest economic data sets coming out, particularly the data on local bank lending and asset quality.
The market was dragged down most by the services and property counters, which both lost over 1 percent.
The industrial, holding firm and mining/oil counters all shed less than 1 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to about P5.39 billion. There was modest net foreign buying of about P56.14 million.
There were 103 decliners that edged out 85 advancers, while 57 stocks were unchanged.
Investors dumped shares of Puregold, which lost 5.1 percent, while Aboitiz Power and Megaworld both declined by nearly 3 percent. These three firms were recently taken out of the closely-tracked MSCI Global Standard index.
JG Summit, ICTSI, SM Prime and URC also all declined by over 2 percent.
SM Investments and Metrobank lost over 1 percent, while Ayala Land and PLDT slipped by less than 1 percent.
Notable decliners outside the PSEi included Converge, which lost 3 percent, while AC Energy slipped by 0.14 percent.
On the other hand, investors picked up shares of BDO, which gained 1.87 percent. It was the day’s most actively traded company.
Ayala Corp. advanced by 1.93 percent, while Jollibee firmed up by 0.99 percent.