Local stock index dips on US job market worries
MANILA, Philippines – The local stock index softened for a second straight session on Friday as fresh concerns over the US job market added to profit-taking pressures.
But GT Capital Holdings of taipan George Ty bucked the downturn in its stock market debut, which saw its shares surge to P492 from the initial public offering price of P455 per share. It was the most actively traded stock for the day, with turnover of P3.3 billion excluding about P6.55 billion worth of block transactions.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index, on the other hand, dipped by 16.82 points or 0.32 percent to 5,156.46, correcting after skyrocketing to new highs past the 5,200 mark earlier in the week. Due to gains earlier in the week that brought the index to all-time highs, however, the PSEi was still ahead by 1.17 percent week-on-week.
Trading was mixed across counters, with holding firms weighing the index the most (-1.22 percent). The industrial and services counters were also in the red.
The financial, property and mining/oil counters firmed up.
Turnover was high at P15.6 billion, buoyed by the brisk trading on GT Capital.
There were 76 advancers against 87 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.
The index stocks that contributed to the day’s decline were Metrobank, Ayala Corp., URC, AGI, MPI and JG Summit.
On the other hand, the index losses were tempered by the gains eked out by Megaworld, Belle, DMCI, BDO and BPI.
Bloomberry Resorts bounced by 27.1 percent after falling sharply in the last few days. Bloomberry, which is building a gaming complex in Pagcor City, is expected to undertake a re-initial public offering in the next few weeks.
