The stock barometer slipped to the 6,600 level on Friday as reports that the more contagious Delta coronavirus variant has breached local territory unnerved investors.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 34.1 points or 0.51 percent to close at 6,693.83 as foreign outflows from the bourse escalated.
“Philippine shares slumped as many watched vigilantly the number of COVID-19 cases from the new Delta variant,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at stock brokerage Regina Capital Development.
The Philippines recorded on Friday 16 more cases, one resulting in death, of the highly transmissible variant of the virus that causes COVID-19, the Department of Health said. Eleven of these cases were locally acquired.
“Meanwhile, funds are focusing their efforts in the US as a new wave of earnings reports rolled in and US Federal Reserve chair (Jerome) Powell’s testimony to Congress reached its final day,” Limlingan said. With Powell reiterating that US inflation would remain hot for several months before normalizing, Limlingan said the Fed was not rushing to end its asset purchases.
For the week, the PSEi fell by a total of 141.09 points or 2 percent.
On Friday, the mining/oil counter was the most battered, having declined by 2.34 percent, while the financial and holding firm counters lost over 1 percent.
The financial and property counters both slipped by less than 1 percent.
The services counter ended a tad higher.
Value turnover improved to P7.59 billion from less than P5 billion in the previous session. However, net foreign selling intensified to P939.35 million from Thursday’s P551 million.
There were 164 decliners that overwhelmed 48 advancers, while 34 stocks were unchanged.
GT Capital was among the most battered PSEi company as the Ty-led conglomerate declined by 5.19 percent.
Sy family-led SM Investments also tumbled by 3.43 percent, while Megaworld and Aboitiz Power both lost nearly 2 percent.
RLC and Metrobank both fell by over 1 percent, while LTG, BDO and Ayala Corp. all faltered by less than 1 percent.
The day’s most actively traded company was non-PSEi stock AC Energy, which pulled back by 6.93 percent. This company is a top market favorite to enter the PSEi basket during the next index realignment.