Local stock index down over mining woes

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock  index dipped marginally on Friday, bucking buoyant trading across the region, as mining and oil woes curbed risk-taking.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 2.91 points or 0.05 percent to close at 5,292.06. The mining/oil index tumbled by 2.77 percent as the market factored in a projected decline in the profits of local mining blue chip Philex for this year.

Philex declined by 6.44 percent while exploration unit Philex Petroleum, which was mentioned during a heated Senate discussion about Philippine-China relations, slid by 15.16 percent and was the day’s steepest decliner.

Holding firms and services also declined.  On the other hand, overall index losses were tempered by the modest gains posted by the industrial and property counters.

Elsewhere across the region, stock markets were mostly higher as technology stocks provided some catalyst with the debut of the much-awaited Apple smartphone product iPhone5.   Hopes for further monetary stimulus in China, especially given indications of weak manufacturing output, also aided Asian stocks.

At the local market, however, investors were more cautious.  There were only 63 advancers against  91 decliners while 47 stocks were unchanged.

Turnover amounted to P5.54 billion.

Other stocks that contributed to the PSEi’s decline were Metrobank (-1.09 percent), PLDT (-0.64 percent), MPI (-2.38 percent), Semirara (-0.99 percent) and BDO (-1.93 percent). SM Prime, FGen and AC also ended lower.

On the other hand, the day’s outperformers were AGI (+1.82 percent), URC (+0.87 percent), BPI (+1.95 percent), ALI (+2.56 percent) and Meralco (+1.63 percent). SMIC and EDC also closed higher.

Among non-index stocks, a notable gainer was Philippine Seven (+3.5 percent), which recently took in a consumer-focused long-term Arisaig as a strategic investor.  Puregold and Bloomberry also gained in heavy trade.