Local stock index sheds 27 points

Philippine Stock Exchange. AFP

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock market retreated from record highs on Thursday as many investors were tempted to lock up gains after a six-day run-up.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 27.03 points or 0.6 percent to finish at 4,480.01.

Some investors also took a cue from the pullback on Wall Street as concerns that emerged on the lifting of the US borrowing cap offset good tidings from US corporate earnings.

The high-flying mining/oil counter succumbed to profit-taking the most, declining by 2.7 percent.  Only services managed to end in positive territory.

Justino Calaycay Jr., a dealer at local stock brokerage Accord Capital Equities Corp., noted that the winning streak in the past six days was the longest in recent memory and had thus brought the main index to overbought levels.  He thus recommended that investors either hold or sell stocks at this point.

“Profit-taking may begin to surface as a viable and reasonable stance as the week approaches a close,” he said.

There were 67 advancers against 103 decliners while 35 stocks were unchanged.

Turnover amounted to P6 billion.

Profit-taking on Philex, Banco de Oro, Lepanto “A” (reserved for local investors) and “B” (open to both local and foreign investors), Metrobank, EDC, DMCI, PLDT and Ayala Corp. dragged down the index.  San Miguel and Manila Mining were also in the red.

The index losses were tempered by the gains eked out by Metro Pacific Investments, Meralco, ICTSI and Globe Telecom. On the other hand, some second and third-liners gained in active trade, such as Vista Land, Empire East, Zeus Holdings, Semirara and East Asia Power.

Overnight, the closely watched US Dow Jones industrial average fell by 15.51 points, or 0.1 percent, to close at 12,571.91.