PSEi declines for second session

THE LOCAL stock barometer slipped for a second day of profit-taking on Tuesday as foreign investors continued to cut down local exposure while local investors looked beyond large cap stocks for trading plays.

Wiping out gains seen earlier in the session, the Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 41.18 points or 0.58 percent to close at 7,051.23.

All counters ended in the red, led by the property counter which fell by 1.15 percent. The market was weighed down by P375 million in net foreign selling while domestic investors turned to smaller-cap firms for buying opportunities.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.07 billion.

Earlier in the session, the PSEi started trading on positive territory, bringing the main index to as high as 7,121.60, following the upbeat trading in Wall Street. However, selling pressures from offshore investors wiped out earlier gains.

There were 92 advancers which were narrowly outnumbered by 93 decliners while 34 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led lower by Megaworld and LTG which respectively fell by 4.49 percent and 3.42 percent while SM Prime fell by over 2 percent. Metrobank, URC, MPI and GTCAP all slipped by over 1 percent.

PLDT, ALI and JG Summit also faltered.

Outside of PSEi, among the steepest decliners were Double Dragon (-18.5 percent) alongside Ionics and SBS which both slumped by over 6 percent.

On the other hand, BDP, Semirara and SMC preferred shares firmed up.

Retailer Lucio Co-led DAVIN also surged by 30 percent alongside Xurpas which rose by 7.33 percent.