Stocks break intraday record trade

The local stocks index soared to a new record high, breaching 6,900 Monday morning. But at the end of the trading day, it gave up hefty intraday gains as profit-taking dominated the afternoon session.

The Philippine Stock Exchange closed 7.88 points or 0.12 percent lower at 6,839.59.  The index rallied by as much as 1 percent in morning trade and hit a new record intraday peak of 6,956.92.

The morning session was marked by a buying frenzy, seen to be a follow-through after Fitch Ratings’ upgrade of the country’s sovereign rating to investment grade last week. But in the afternoon, that trend was reversed.

Veteran broker Ismael Cruz, president of IGC Securities, said the euphoria had started but a correction was bound to come.

“After that, the market will advance again and will possibly hit 7,200 or even 7,500,” Cruz said.

Value turnover amounted to P21.74 billion. There were 72 advancers against 87 decliners, while 46 stocks were unchanged.

The index was weighed down by the selldown on the following large-cap stocks: PLDT (-2.14 percent), URC (-1.77 percent), AGI (-1.18 percent), ALI (-3.98 percent) , Bloomberry (-2.67 percent) , Meralco

(-2.33 percent) and AEV (-1.45 percent).

Gains posted by the following stocks tempered the pullback: SM Prime (+3.66 percent), ICTSI (+3.15 percent), SMDC (+3.14 percent), Semirara (+2.62 percent), AC (+2.47 percent), DMCI (+1.55 percent) and SMC (+1.3 percent). Doris C. Dumlao