PSEi extends slide

The local stock barometer slipped for a second session on Friday, reversing gains early in the day as investors turned cautious ahead of a US jobs data report.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped by 25.88 points or 0.39 percent to close at 6,561.20. Despite the decline in the last two days, the index advanced by a total of 201.58 points or 3.2 percent for the week due to strong gains earlier in the week.

Early in the session, stocks were trading on the upside after the Philippines reported a lower-than-expected inflation rate in March. Lofty prices, however, fueled profit-taking afterwards.

The day’s decline was led by the financial, holding firm, services and property counters. The industrial and mining/oil counters eked out modest gains.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.96 billion. Despite the overall index decline, there were 89 advancers that beat 70 decliners while 49 stocks were unchanged.

Profit-taking on SMPH, ALI, AC, DMCI and BPI dragged down the PSEi.

Domestic investors accounted for bulk of the profit-taking as there was still around P440 million in net foreign buying for the day.

On the other hand, FGEN (+4.61 percent) was an outperformer for the day. MWC (+2.08 percent), URC (+1.24 percent) and GTCAP (+1.16 percent) also bucked the downtrend.

Shares of SMIC, Petron, Metrobank and AGI also firmed up.

Outside of PSEi stocks, SECB (+0.93 percent) and Robinsons Retail (+2.5 percent) also gained in heavy volume. Doris C. Dumlao