Heavy foreign selling drags PSEi down

Fresh lockdown jitters caused a bloodbath in the local stock market on Wednesday, making the Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) the worst perfor­mer among emerging markets in the region.

The local stock barometer slid by 113.55 points or 1.63 percent to close at 6,863.61.

Heavy net foreign selling, which hit P1.37 billion, dragged down the market. Foreign funds have been flowing out of the market for the last nine sessions.

“The PSEi declined further led by substantial losses in large-cap property stocks. The sentiment continues to deteriorate on concerns of rising COVID-19 cases which may lead to a tightening of current restrictions. The daily case rate has begun picking up since last week, and is approaching 2,000 new cases per day, last seen back in October,” said Christopher Mangun, head of research at AAA Equities.

“Although the rate of new serious cases continues to decline, more and more investors are unloading positions in preparation for the worst-case scenario,” Mangun said.

The PSEi may further decline toward its next major support level at 6,740, he added.

While several second-liners and speculative issues recovered after several days of losses, Mangun said this might just be a technical bounce from oversold levels as more investors would opt to stay on the sidelines after the dizzying decline in recent days.

The property counter tumbled by 2.45 percent. The financial and industrial counters fell by 1.95 percent and 1.77 percent, respectively, while the holding firm and services counters both slipped by less than 1 percent.

The mining/oil counter added 0.57 percent.

Total value turnover for the day amounted to P10.68 billion.

Despite the PSEi’s decline, there were 112 advancers that edged out 101 decliners as investors scouted for buying opportunities among battered second- and third-liner stocks.

The PSEi was weighed down by URC, which fell by 5.3 percent, while Ayala Land and BDO both lost over 3 percent.

SM Prime, Ayala Corp., Metrobank and ICTSI all declined by over 2 percent. Globe Telecom slipped by 0.3 percent.

SM Investments, BPI and PLDT all added less than 1 percent.

The frenzy over second- and third-liner stocks continued, with Basic Energy surging by 50 percent. It was the second most actively traded company.

The most actively traded stock was Apollo Global, which surged by 25.89 percent.

PHA and Abra Mining both rallied by 20 percent, while MRC Allied rose by 15.22 percent.

Dito added 6.72 percent while AC Energy added 1.22 percent. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA