PSEi down 1.39%; Chelsea IPO awaited

SHARE prices retreated on Tuesday, with the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEI) ending just above the 7,900 level and investors repositioning themselves ahead of Chelsea Logistics Holdings Corp.’s market debut.

The bellwether index lost 111.45 points or 1.39 percent to close at 7,906.60. The wider All Shares declined by 42.95 points or 0.90 percent to 4,723.91.

“Chelsea has sucked a lot of funds out of the market that’s why volume is low. Also, [the] third quarter is seasonally weak,” Eagle Equities Inc. President Joseph Roxas said.

Dennis Uy-led Chelsea Logistics is set to list on the Philippine Stock Exchange on August 8, 2017.

It expects to sell more than 546 million new common shares, or 30 percent of its 1.8-billion outstanding common shares, at P10.68 apiece.

Harry Liu, president of Summit Securities Inc., said the market was technically on a pullback.

“Investors are still on the sidelines looking for a good news catalyst to move it higher such as… [gains in] Marawi , tax reform, earnings results,” he said.

All sectoral indices were in the red, led by property (-2.24 percent) and industrials (-1.20 percent).

Volume turnover was thin, at 864 million with a value of P6.1 billion. Losers led gainers, 114 to 86, while 48 issues were kept unchanged.