PSEi loses 6,600 foothold on blue chip sell-off

MANILA  -The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell below the 6,600 level on Monday as blue chip stocks were sold down.

The PSEi sank 0.51 percent, or 33.79 points, to 6,591.47 while the broader All Shares index was down 0.29 percent, or 10.25 points, to 3,516.67.

“This may be attributed largely to month-end portfolio adjustments of institutional investors and also shows continued selling pressure after the index failed to hurdle the strong resistance at 6,700,” Juan Paolo Colet, managing director at investment bank China Bank Capital Corp., said in a note to investors on Monday.

Trading volume swelled as 1.95 billion shares valued at P20.1 billion changed hands while foreign buying surged higher.

This was mainly due to a P15-billion block sale of the Yuchengco family’s Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. shares to Sumitomo Mitsui Banking Corp. This allowed the Japanese banking giant to increase its RCBC stake to 20 percent.

Holding firms, mining and oil, property and industrial stocks slipped while services and financials climbed.

International Container Terminal Services, the top traded stock, added 2.84 percent to P217 per share.

It was followed by SM Prime Holdings Inc., down 1.33 percent to P33.40; BDO Unibank Inc., down 1.29 percent to P145.10; Ayala Corp., down 1.52 percent to P615; and Ayala Land Inc., down 0.36 percent to P27.40 per share.

SM Investments Corp. was down 0.65 percent to P912; Jollibee Foods Corp., up 1.19 percent to P255; Universal Robina Corp., down 1.53 percent to P122.60; Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., up 3.99 percent to P60; and Bank of the Philippine Islands, down 0.52 percent to P114.50 per share.

Overall, there were 84 losers against 83 advancers while 64 companies closed unchanged, data from the stock exchange showed.