Philippine stocks tumble on major correction

MANILA, Philippines—The local stocks index fell sharply on Monday as investors sold down equities while awaiting corporate earnings to catch up with lofty valuations.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index tumbled by 74.52 points, or 1.44 percent, to close at 5,083.62.

All counters ended in the red but the worst hit were the financial, holding firms and mining/oil counters, which all fell by over 2.2 percent.

Value turnover amounted to P5.82 billion. There were nearly five losers for every single advancer.

Jose Vistan, strategist at AB Capital Securities, said the market had gone up so sharply this year such that a deep correction was waiting to happen. He said the next major support was at 4,750. “But we probably won’t reach that,” he said.

Other stock dealers said the market was undergoing a major correction, which was necessary for the market to build a strong base to continue its bull run.

The stocks that weighed down on the PSEi were Metrobank (-2.3 percent), SM Investments (-3.95 percent), URC (-0.81 percent), AGI (-2.33 percent), Megaworld (-1.42 percent), BDO (-2.3 percent), DMCI (1.21 percent), AP (0.72 percent), ALI (-0.98 percent), SM Prime (-1.45 percent) and BPI (-0.28 percent).

Likewise sold down were Bloomberry (-8.78 percent), Security Bank (-6.66 percent), GT Capital (-4.28 percent), Cebu Holdings (-4.48 percent), Philodrill (-7.14 percent) and PNB (-1.45 percent).

The lucky few that bucked the day’s downturn were MPI (+1.43 percent) and Semirara (+0.4 percent).