PH stock market flat on weekend profit-taking

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index closed flat on Friday, negating a strong performance in morning trade as eurozone jitters induced profit-taking ahead of the weekend.

After a strong performance in morning trade, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index faltered toward the end of the session to close 0.48 points or 0.01 percent weaker at 4,893.

Despite ending in negative territory for the second straight session, the index was still ahead by a modest 12.29 points or 0.2 percent because of its surge to new highs earlier in the week.

Trading was mixed across counters, with  property, services and mining/oil ending in the red and the financial, industrial and holding firms staying afloat.

Turnover amounted to P9.64 billion.

There were 59 advancers against 111 decliners while 39 stocks were unchanged.

Reuben Mark Angeles, head of research at First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp., said in a research note that following Thursday’s sell-off when the main index neared the 5,000-mark, “emotionally driven” investors may indeed continue to sell.

“We would prefer to take advantage of such sell-offs as good opportunities to increase exposure. Global economic data are better now than they were in October 2011. And with most central banks creating money, we see higher equity prices and lower bond yields for the time being,” Angeles said.

Angeles said the PSEi’s drop after posting new all-time highs on Thursday was “overdone.” Based on fund flow data, he said there were more funds waiting to be invested in Philippine equities.

The main index was weighed down on Friday by EDC, Metrobank, PLDT, SM Investments, URC, DMCI, BDO and SM Prime Holdings.  The non-PSEi stocks that declined in heavy volume were Petron and Puregold.

The PSEi’s losses on Friday were tempered by the gains of Aboitiz Power, Ayala Land and AEV.

The Aboitiz stocks were fueled by a prospective merger-and-acquisition  play on its banking unit Union Bank of the Philippines, which was the day’s most actively traded stock. Union Bank rallied by 17 percent to finish at P135 per share.

Other banking stocks RCBC and PNB also rose in heavy trading on Friday.

Other notable gainers for the day were mining stocks Dizon and NiHao.