Philippine bourse pulls back as investors lock in gains

Photo taken from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock market pulled back for a second straight session as, with the index nearing record highs, investors chose to lock up gains rather than ride on buoyant regional market sentiment.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index dipped by 14.1 points, or 0.26 percent, to close at 5,317.03.

On the other hand, regional markets were mostly higher after Bank of Japan made a surprise move to expand its asset purchase fund by $126 billion, following the US Federal Reserve’s recent monetary stimulus.

The holding firm, services, mining/oil and property indices weighed down the main index while meager gains by the financial and industrial counters tempered the decline.

Turnover amounted to P4.99 billion. Despite the overall index losses, there were slightly more advancers (80) than decliners (75) as investors scouted for buying opportunities outside of main index stocks.

The index laggards were ICTSI (-1.86 percent), EDC (-1.78 percent), PLDT (-1.19 percent), Philex (-1 percent), SM Prime (-0.99 percent) and MPI (-0.7 percent). DMCI, DMIC, AGI, BDO, MWC. AEV, RLC and Meralco also contributed to the index decline.

On the other hand, the day’s outperformers were URC (+1.88 percent), AC (+1.86 percent) and BPI (+0.78 percent). Jollibee, AP, Semirara, Globe and Metrobank also helped temper the PSEi’s decline.

Among non-index stocks, FPH (+0.45 percent) traded higher in heavy volume.