Stocks down on profit-taking

The local stock index fell marginally in mixed trading Friday as investors pocketed gains from some overbought stocks.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 1.65 points or 0.037 percent to finish at 4,478.36.

Despite the pullback in the last two sessions, the index was still ahead by 19.62 points or 0.4 percent for the week.

The mining/oil counter fell 2.48 percent, leading the index lower. The industrial, holding firms and service sectors also ended in the red.

The interest rate-sensitive financial and property counters, on the other hand, closed in positive territory on rising expectations that the central bank might be nearing the end of its monetary-tightening cycle.

Value turnover amounted to P6.52 billion. There were 68 advancers against 88 decliners while 36 stocks were unchanged. There was P1.89 billion in net foreign buying for the day due to a block transaction on port operator ICTSI.

The index was hit by profit-taking on Philex, Metrobank, Lepanto “A” (reserved for local investors) and “B” (open to foreigners), SM Prime Holdings, URC, ICTSI and First Gen. San Miguel Corp. also edged lower.

On the other hand, gains made by BDO, Megaworld, AGI, PLDT and Globe Telecom tempered the PSEi’s decline.  Non-index stocks Vista Land, Semirara, Belle and GERI were likewise up in heavy volume.

Shares of Vista Land have risen ahead of the announcement of Manuel Paolo Villar as its new CEO.

Overnight, US stocks traded higher as investors started to digest a string of better-than-expected corporate earnings reports and a new debt accord to help the Greek economy.

Moving forward, the index is widely expected to advance for the third year in a row this 2011.

“Corporate earnings, both here and in the US, will provide intermittent shades of positivism on individual counters. Although

there have been some guidance issued by some domestic firms of flat second-quarter results, we believe that the general trend favors a decent pick-up in bottomlines over the April-to-June period,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., a dealer at Accord Capital Equities Corp.

“We expect power and energy, finance and property [including construction] stocks to benefit from this cycle. The sustained elevated price levels of precious metals and resources in the world market will also retain interest in, and allow expectations of better numbers for, miners’ issues,” he said. Doris C. Dumlao