PSEi falls 1.3% on profit-taking
THE stock market snapped a five-day winning streak on Tuesday, plunging by more than 1 percent as investors chose to take profits.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 101.32 points or 1.30 percent to close at 7,672.00, while the broader All Shares declined 0.89 percent or 41.16 points to end at 4,604.12.
Philstocks Financial, Inc. research associate Piper Chaucer Tan pointed to profit-taking as having dragged the index down, adding that disappointing earnings results from companies such as BDO Unibank, Inc. and Universal Robina Corp. (URC) also contributed.
URC on Monday reported a 23-percent drop in first half net income to P4.9 billion, citing lower foreign exchange gains and a weaker peso, while BDO last week announced a first half result of P13.1 billion, down 1.5 percent from a year earlier due to accounting adjustments and expansion costs.
Harry Liu, president of Summit Securities, Inc. said market players were basically selling ahead of ghost month.
Ghost month in the Chinese lunar calender is when investors are supposed to hold off from making big-ticket investments. Buddhist and Taoist beliefs hold that restless spirits cause mischief during the period.
“We will see the market consolidate within 7,400 to 7,700 and maybe we’ll see a strong market after the ghost month,” Liu said.
All sectoral indices fell on Tuesday, led by property that lost 1.72 percent.
Volume turnover was thin with just 842 million issues valued at P7.05 billion traded.
Decliners beat advancers, 130 to 63, while 52 issues were unchanged.
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