PSEi falls on profit-taking, Zobels trim stake in Ayala

Brothers Fernando (left) and Jaime Augusto Zobel de Ayala lead the 7th generation Zobels.

The local stock market started the week bludgeoned by profit-taking but hefty foreign buying flowed to the market, particularly into the country’s oldest business house Ayala Corp.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index shed 72.63 points or 0.86 percent to close at 8,348.32 on Monday.

Foreign investors saw an opportunity to pick up stocks, resulting in a hefty P7.57 billion in net foreign buying. In particular, there was a P7.5-billion block transaction on conglomerate Ayala Corp. as Mermac Inc., the holding company of the Zobel family, sold 7.06 million shares or 0.86 percent to a foreign institutional investor. After the transaction – which was executed by BPI Securities and UBS Securities- Mermac still holds 47.75 percent of Ayala’s common shares and 55.56 percent of voting shares, remaining as Ayala’s largest shareholder.

The PSEi started the trading day upbeat but gains were reversed in afternoon trade. The main index was weighed down mostly by the financial and holding firm counters – which both fell by over 1 percent – while the mining/oil counter also slipped.

The industrial, services and property counters slightly gained.

Value turnover for the day was heavy at P13.29 billion due to the hefty foreign buying. There were 111 decliners that edged out 90 advancers while 37 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was weighed down most by Ayala Corp., which fell by 4.95 percent, while SM Investments and Metrobank declined by over 3 percent.

BDO and Metro Pacific both lost over 1 percent.

SM Prime, Semirara, Megaworld, PLDT and Meralco also slipped.

Outside of the PSEi, notable decliners included Chelsea (-3 percent) and Bloomberry (-2.5 percent).

On the other hand, URC, Ayala Land and Jollibee bucked the day’s downturn, respectively, rising by 2.19 percent, 1.74 percent and 1.22 percent.

Ayala Land was the day’s most actively traded company.

Several non-PSEi stocks likewise gained in heavy volume, particularly Lopez Holdings, which surged by 9.22 percent and Melco Resorts, which rallied by 10.43 percent.

Another gaming firm PLC added 3.73 percent.