Upcoming US inflation data send PH investors taking cover

MANILA  -Philippine stocks were slightly down ahead of the release of US inflation data on Oct. 12.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped 0.16 percent, or 10.11 points, to 6,253.96, while the broader All Shares index was down 0.05 percent, or 1.82 points, to 3,384.45.

“Local shares edged lower ahead of the US inflation release, coupled with [the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’] statement not ruling out a potential quarter-point hike in November,” Luis Gerardo Limlingan, head of sales at stock brokerage house Regina Capital Development, said in a note to investors on Wednesday.

READ: November BSP rate hike seen increasingly likely

Subsectors were mostly lower, with the underperformers led by mining and oil (-0.81 percent), financials (-0.60 percent), industrial (-0.43 percent) and services (-0.10 percent). Property and holding firms rose 0.22 percent and 0.15 percent, respectively.

Top-traded stocks

A total of 2.02 billion shares valued at P10.7 billion changed hands, which included Ayala Corp.’s P5-billion block sale of its Manila Water shares. Net foreign selling also reached P160.31 million, data from the stock exchange showed.

BDO Unibank Inc. was the top-traded stock as it slipped 2.37 percent to P136 per share.

It was followed by SM Prime Holdings Inc., up 0.32 percent to P31.10; International Container Terminal Services Inc., down 1.46 percent to P202; Ayala Land Inc., up 0.35 percent to P28.65; and SM Investments Corp., up 0.85 percent to P828 per share.

Jollibee Foods Corp. was down 2.39 percent to P220.60; Universal Robina Corp., down 2.46 percent to P115; Semirara Mining and Power Corp., down 1.77 percent to P36; Bank of the Philippine Islands, down 0.37 percent to P108.40; and ACEN Corp., up 1.30 percent to P5.46 per share.

Overall, there were 100 advancers against 93 losers, while 46 companies closed unchanged. INQ