Philippine stocks end 4-day rise as investors pocket gains

Photo taken from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The local stocks index ended a four-day run-up on Tuesday as investors pocketed gains with the market nearing all-time highs.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 19.77 points, or 0.37 percent, to close at 5,331.13 as investors took their cue from an overnight correction on Wall Street.  Across the region, investors shifted their focus on the growth slowdown in China after the euphoria on the US Federal Reserve’s new bond buyback scheme fizzled out.

The market was weighed down by the financial, industrial, holding firm and services counters.  On the other hand, the mining/oil and property counters managed to stay buoyant.

Value amounted to P6.58 billion. There were 71 advancers, which were outnumbered by 86 decliners, while 43 stocks were unchanged.

Among the index laggers were JFC (-3.4 percent), BPI (-1.98 percent), Meralco (-1.96 percent), JG Summit (-1.47 percent) and AEV (-1.43 percent) while AC, Metrobank, Petron, PLDT and SM also weighed down the PSEi.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s decline was tempered by the gains eked out by BDO (+1.61 percent), FGen (+1.58 percent), EDC (+1.31 percent), ALI (+1.26 percent) and SM Prime (+1.15 percent). Megaworld, Globe, SM, ICTSI and Philex also cushioned the fall.

Overnight, the Dow Jones industrial average declined by 40 points, or 0.30 percent, to 13,553 as the Empire State Manufacturing Survey suggested weakening conditions for New York manufacturers in September.