PSEi flat on sluggish Wall St. sentiment

LOCAL stocks ended flat on Friday as investors took their cue from the regional downturn and an overnight sell-off in Wall Street.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 2.46 points or 0.03 percent to close at 7,255.39, reversing modest gains early in the session. Across the region, most stock markets slipped on disappointing earnings from US blue chip companies.

Overnight, the closely-tracked Dow Jones Industrial Index fell by 113.75 points or 0.63 percent.

The day’s decline was led by the mining/oil counter which slumped by 1.12 percent while the industrial and property counters also slipped.

On the other hand, the financial and holding firm counters firmed up.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P5.24 billion. There were 97 decliners which edged out 84 advancers while 51 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led lower by Petron, PLDT, Jollibee and AGI which all fell by over 1 percent.

ALI, BDO and RLC also slipped.

Outside of the PSEi, NOW gained 5.59 percent and was the second most actively traded stock. The company has been perked up for the past few weeks by expectations of a shift to the broadband business.

On the other hand, Metrobank and AP both gained over 1 percent while URC, BPI, SM Prime, AC, MPI and Megaworld also firmed up.

Non-PSEi stock FNI slipped by 3.03 percent in heavy trade.