Stocks fall further on foreign selling

The local stock barometer drifted deeper into bear territory on Monday as more foreign funds exited the local bourse.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) shed 38.63 points, or 0.57 percent, to close at 6,749.28, weighed down by about P1.53 billion worth of net foreign selling.

The COVID-19 contagion has been causing risk aversion globally although in the local market, there were concerns on regulatory risks in recent months.

Local stockbrokerage Papa Securities said with PSEi’s massive drop last Friday and the breakdown of its 6,790 support amid the MSCI rebalancing and coronavirus fears, “emotions may be driving the market more than it should.”

“In light of that, we look at the PSEi’s weekly chart since 2016 and from a technical standpoint—view that it might be good to accumulate from here until the 6,500 support for a possible hefty bounce to the index’s breakdown point around 7,200,” the brokerage said.

The PSEi has fallen to the bear zone, indicating a drop of at least 20 percent from the peak, since the last week of February.

“Weekly technicals are dictating that the 6,500 level should be able to hold and may in fact be the area for a solid bounce,” Papa Securities said.

Except for the property counter, which gained 1.53 percent, all other sectors declined.

The most battered were the industrial and financial counters, which fell by 2.29 percent and 1.53 percent, respectively.

Value turnover amounted to P6.5 billion.

There were 129 decliners that outnumbered 69 advancers while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Investors sold down shares of BDO, which fell by 4.96 percent, while Meralco also tumbled by 4.74 percent.

Conglomerate Ayala Corp., the day’s most actively traded company, dropped by 1.96 percent while URC shed 1.91 percent.

SM Investments, JG Summit, Jollibee, Metrobank and AGI all declined by more than 1 percent.

PLDT also slightly declined.

On the other hand, Metro Pacific racked up 4.23 percent while Megaworld gained 2.94 percent.

Ayala Land added 2.05 percent while BPI rose by 1.89 percent.

SM Prime and Globe Telecom both gained over 1 percent.

One notable gainer outside the PSEi was Metro Alliance Holdings, which surged by 23.12 percent. There has been extraordinary trading on shares of this company in recent days.

Philippine Seven Corp. also added 1.97 percent.