PSEi slips on hawkish Fed talks

THE LOCAL stock barometer dipped on Wednesday as hawkish comments from US Federal Reserve officials curbed risk appetite across regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 37.19 points or 0.47 percent to close at 7,946.19, tracking the overnight decline in US stocks.

Apart from talks that the US Fed may raise interest rates as early as September, a drop in oil prices also dampened sentiment across the region.

The mining/oil and property counters led the market lower, both declining by over 1 percent.

Only the services counter was slightly up.

Total value turnover for the day amounted to P9.47 billion.

Despite the PSEi’s dip, market breadth was positive as there were more advancers (97) than decliners (87). There was P998.45 million in net foreign selling during the day.

The PSEi was weighed down most by Semirara (-4.07 percent), Megaworld (-3.15 percent) and PLDT (-1.06 percent).

MPI, Globe, JG Summit, ALI, SMIC, SM Prime and BDO also slipped.

Outside of the PSEi, Security Bank (-2.69 percent) and RRHI (-2.93 percent) took a heavy beating.

On the other hand, ICTSI rose by 4.81 percent while GTCAP gained 2.6 percent.

URC, Metrobank and AEV also modestly gained.

Airline operator Cebu Air, which is not part of the PSEi, gained 2.41 percent in heavy volume after reporting strong second quarter results. The airline boosted its six-month core earnings by 25.5 percent on higher passenger volume.