Philippine stock prices slump as investors avoid risk

MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks slumped on Wednesday as global risk-taking was dampened by global growth woes as well as a brewing political unrest in Spain.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index fell by 32.54 points, or 0.61 percent, to close at 5,292.63, declining for the second straight session.

Holding firms and the property counters were the most bludgeoned in Wednesday’s trade, respectively declining by 1.28 percent and 1.19 percent.

Mark Angeles, head of research at First Metro Securities, said the local sentiment was affected by the overnight decline in Wall Street as well as the new equity placement on JG Summit.

The Gokongwei family sold 100 million shares at P32 per share in an overnight equity deal, translating to a 7-percent discount to Tuesday’s closing. JG Summit thus led the day’s index decliners, closing 7.7 percent lower at P31.75 to reflect the overnight placement.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Index fell by 0.75 percent to 13,457.55.

Other index laggers were ALI (-2.1 percent), Globe Telecom (-1.84 percent), Megaworld (-1.79 percent) and AGI (-1.45 percent). AC, SM Prime, PLDT, SMIC, Meralco, BPI and ICTSI also contributed to the index decline.

The PSE’s decline was cushioned by the gains posted by BDO, Metrobank, URC and AP.

Among second-liners, the outperformers were Bloomberry (+4.01 percent), Security Bank (+1.63 percent) and GT Capital (+0.73 percent).

Value turnover amounted to P7.9 billion, boosted by the cross of P3.2 billion JG Summit shares placed out by the Gokongwei group.

There were 58 advancers, which were edged out by 95 decliners while 43 stocks were unchanged.

Across the region, the earlier euphoria over monetary easing by major central banks gave way to concerns over global growth and the protests in Spain over austerity measures.