Philippine stocks fall further
MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index retreated farther away from record highs on Thursday as investors reassessed their portfolios given recent market gains.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 22.9 points, or 0.52 percent, to 4,375.85 as investors pocketed gains from blue chips and shifted to other stocks.
The index decline was tempered by a rebound of the mining/oil counter by 1.16 percent and a modest 0.28 percent gain of the industrial counter. All other sub-indices succumbed to further profit-taking.
Turnover amounted to P4.7 billion. Despite the overall index decline, there were 68 gainers against 57 decliners while 40 stocks were unchanged.
“This is just a technical correction. I think the index will hit 4,700 to 4,800 by August or early September,” said Manny Cruz, chief strategist at local stock brokerage Asiasec Equities.
The day’s most actively traded stock was still San Miguel Corp. while the index gainers were EDC, Metrobank, Philex, Petron, First Gen, Aboitiz Power and Megaworld. Non-index stocks Atlas and Global Estate were likewise up on heavy trade.
On the other hand, the index was dragged down by AGI, SM Prime, URC, SM Investments, Meralco, PLDT and BDO. Cebu Air also traded in the red.
