Share prices ended lower Thursday as investors looked for better news to trade the market.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index was down 9.78 points to 5,921.55, a 0.17 percent drop.
The broader all shares index was up 0.17 points to 3,544.41, flat from Wednesday.
Gainers edged losers 98 to 86 with 57 stocks unchanged.
Trading turnover reached P17.46 billion, including a P13.2-billion special block sale of SM Investments Corp.
A total of 15 million shares, equivalent to 2.6 percent of the company’s shares of stock was traded in a special cross Thursday at P880 apiece.
The peso closed at 48.63 to the dollar, down from 48.52 on Wednesday.
The currency opened at 48.57 and hit a high of 48.55 and a low of 48.68. Trading turnover reached $776.07 million.
Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development Corp., said investors were waiting for more news to trade, resulting to the flat market performance.
Investors are awaiting the result of the MSCI rebalancing that will be out by today.
“In addition, some concerns overseas kept local investors at bay as China fired two medium-range missiles into the South China Sea whilst US put sanctions on 24 firms… after earlier complaining about an American spy plane,” Limlingan said.
“For its part, Washington put sanctions on 24 firms – including Guangzhou Haige and units of China Communications Construction – for building Chinese outposts in the disputed area. Meanwhile China is also calling on US for direct talks on audit issues for US listed American Depository Receipts ,” he added.
Japhet Tantiangco, analyst at Philstocks Financial Inc., said “the 6.8-percent decline in the first seven-month government revenues and the downwardly revised revenue collection target from the Bureau of Internal Revenue and the Bureau of Customs for the whole year gave signs of the general economy’s weakness and its challenged outlook.”
“Our net foreign outflows also continue to build up adding to the market’s downside. So far, we’re already on an 8-day net foreign selling streak with today’s net outflows amounting to P1.1 billion,” Tantiangco said.
Most-actively traded SM Investments Corp. was down P14 to P873. Ayala Land Inc. was down P0.30 to P29.70. BDO Unibank Inc. was up P0.10 to P87.05. PLDT Inc. was up P5 to P1,446. Bank of the Philippine Islands was up P2.70 to P65.70. Universal Robina Corp. was down P0.20 to P138.80. International Container Terminal Services Inc. was down P1.50 to P105. Metro Pacific Investments Corp. was up P0.08 to P3.41. Metropolitan Bank and Trust Co. was up P0.55 to P34.40. SM Prime Holdings Inc. was steady at P29.50.
