PSEi retreats to 7,000 as traders face deluge of new stock offerings
The stock barometer tumbled to the 7,000 mark on Friday as investors prepared cash for upcoming stock offerings while others trimmed trading positions, playing it safe ahead of a long weekend.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 103.03 points, or 1.44 percent, to close at 7,054.70.
Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities, said the pipeline of stock offerings may have siphoned off some liquidity in the market.
“There’s some effect as these offerings were overlapping,” Roxas said.
Villar-led grocery operator AllDay Mart recently completed its P4.5-billion initial public offering (IPO), while Megawide Construction sold P4 billion preferred shares.
Electricity grid holding firm Synergy launched on Oct. 26 its P13.85-billion re-IPO, which will run until Nov. 2, while liquor distributor The Keepers’ P4.5-billion re-IPO will start on Nov. 4 up to Nov. 10.
For the week, the PSEi pulled back by a total of 234.91 points or 3.22 percent.
No local trading
On Friday, the market was weighed down by about P1.24 billion worth of net foreign selling. Elsewhere in the region, trading sentiment was mixed.
There will be no local trading on Monday (Nov.1), a holiday in commemoration of All Saints’ Day.
On Friday, all counters headed south, the most battered of which was the services counter, which lost 1.94 percent.
The financials, holding firms and property counters all declined by over 1 percent, while the industrial and mining/oil counters slipped by less than 1 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.7 billion.
There were 107 decliners that outnumbered 84 advancers, while 45 companies were unchanged.
ICTSI faltered by 4.76 percent, while Converge, JG Summit and PLDT all lost over 3 percent.
SM Investments, BDO and Jollibee fell by over 2 percent.
SM Prime, the day’s most actively traded company, declined by 1.78 percent.
Ayala Land fell by 1.54 percent, while AC Energy and URC slipped by less than 1 percent.
Notable decliners outside the PSEi included DMCI, which lost 3.28 percent, while its coal and energy subsidiary shed 0.19 percent.
On the other hand, Ayala Corp. gained 1.53 percent, while its telecom arm added 0.81 percent.
Newly listed MREIT rose by 0.44 percent in relatively heavy trade.
