All sectoral indices drag bourse down further

LOCAL SHARES failed to mirror Wall Street’s gains, despite the expected seasonal window-dressing by fund managers.

“For the last two years, windowdressing is non-existent anymore,” said Miko S. Sayo, trader at Angping & Associates Securities, Inc.

“I think we are getting affected by the weak peso. Also, it’s just the season to be bearish,” he added.

But for Joseph Y. Roxas, president of Eagle Equities, Inc., the impact of end-semester windowdressing will still be felt on Friday.

On Thursday, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gave up 69.12 points or 0.88% to close at 7,788.06, while the broader allshares index also slipped, giving up 34.55 points or 0.73% to finish 4,662.65. All six sectoral indices ended trading negatively.

Harry G. Liu, president of Summit Securities, Inc., said the PSEi “technically broke short- term support.” He added that there was no “fundamental catalyst” to move the market higher.

Luis A. Limlingan, business development head at Regina Capital Development Corp., said Philippine markets failed to match US equities’ march that was led by banks and technology stocks. “The technology sector rebounded strongly following signs of the end-of-a-cycle correction ending,” he noted.

Locally, services led losers with a drop of 36.59 points or 2.11% to finish at 1,695.78. Property stocks followed with a decline of 68.43 points or 1.88% to 3,571.40, mining and oil lost 72.37 points or 0.57% to 12,579.31, financials slipped 7.9 points or 0.40% to 1,928.66, holding firms went down 18.28 points or 0.23% to 7,808.88, while industrial issues finished 23.55 points or 0.21% lower at 10,957.41.

Trading value was at P7.78 billion, up 17% from Wednesday’s P6.64 billion.

Advancers lagged behind losers for the third day in a row at 78 to 135, while 40 shares finished unchanged.

Foreign funds yesterday ended three straight days of net selling with P118.61 million worth of net purchases that were a turnaround from Wednesday’s P198.74-million net selling.

Cityland Development Corp. was yesterday’s top gainer as its shares climbed 12.75% or 0.19 points to finish P1.68 each.

Rounding out the top five in this regard were City & Land Developers, Inc.; Grand Plaza Hotel Corp.; Vantage Equities, Inc. and Manila Jockey Club, Inc.

The top losers were Omico Corp.; BHI Holdings, Inc.; MJC Investments Corp.; Lorenzo Shipping Corp. and Mabuhay Holdings Corp.

Yesterday’s most active stocks were led by Pilipinas Shell Petroleum Corp. ( down 2.17% to P67.50 per share); Ayala Land, Inc. (down 2.26% to P39 apiece); SM Investments Corp. (up 0.38% to P790); Manila Electric Co. ( down 1.07% to P259.40); and Ayala Corp. (down 0.18% to P840 each). —