Philippine stocks slightly dip

Photo taken from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—Most local stocks dipped slightly on Tuesday, bucking the upswing across regional markets, due to the lack of fresh incentives to load up on equities.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 5.84 points, or 0.11 percent, to close at 5,265.94 in mixed trade.

The industrial, services and property counters weighed down the main index while the financial, holding firms and mining/oil eked out modest gains.

Value turnover was very thin at P3.88 billion. There were 70 advancers that were edged out by 83 decliners while 43 stocks were unchanged.

The stocks that contributed to the PSEi’s decline were EDC, AGI, ALI, PLDT, BDO, Philex, AEV and JFC.

On the other hand, gains by Metrobank, First Gen, SM Prime, Megaworld and SMIC tempered the day’s index decline.

Security Bank also gained in heavy volume. Other notable gainers were ABSP (+3.77 percent) and SGI (+26 percent).

“With the lack of firm trading leads, expect the local bourse to continue moving sideways with a downward bias, as global slowdown concerns continue to weigh on investor sentiment,” Metrobank said in its daily research.

Meanwhile, Metrobank noted that the MSCI August review has been scheduled for August 15 while index adjustments will take effect by Sept. 3.