MANILA, Philippines – Profit takers again dictated the trading session, dragging the main index for the fourth straight day yesterday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index retreated 1.21 percent or 80.75 points to 6,604.35, while the broader all shares index dropped 1.09 percent or 43.96 points to 3,990.20.
“It was still due to profit taking. And trades also glided from the Dow Jones’ decline last Friday,” said Freya Natividad, investment analyst at Papa Securities.
The decline in consumer discretionary stocks pulled down Wall Street on Friday. The Dow Jones industrial average shed 0.85 percent or 140.19 points to 16,361.46 while the broader Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 0.81 percent or 15.21 points to end at 1,863.40.
Asian markets were also in the red yesterday given escalating geopolitical tension in Ukraine.
At home, all counters, save for the service sector that rose 0.29 percent or 5.81 points to 1,997.96, were in the negative territory. The decliners were led by the property sector that sank 2.58 percent or 67.71 points to close at 2,560.91.
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The value of shares traded improved to P7.47 billion from P6.6 billion on Friday. However, losers again dominated advancers, 127 to 54, while 37 stocks did not change.
Most active issues posted losses, led by top-traded Metrobank (-0.60 percent) and BDO Unibank Inc. (-0.17 percent). Megaworld Corp., Manila Electric Co., SM Prime Holdings Inc., Petron Corp., Ayala Land Inc. and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. posted at least a two-percent drop.
