Main index falls to 6,700 level on profit taking

PHILIPPINE STOCKS declined on Monday on profit taking and amid a lack of fresh leads, with Wall Street’s drop on Friday also affecting investor sentiment.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell by 1.08% or 74.62 points to close at 6,798.61 on Monday, while the broader all shares dropped by 0.97% or 35.06 points to end at 3,562.61.

“Philippine shares started the week with some profit taking as the latest Financial Times Stock Exchange results indicated that several names would be removed during the next rebalancing date,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message.

“The key economic data releases in the US this week are the jobless claims report on Thursday and the existing home sales report on Friday. The minutes from the January FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) meeting will be released on Wednesday… Meanwhile, a quiet week ahead of us here in the Philippines, with only the balance of payments data for January scheduled to be released this week,” Mr. Limlingan added.

US shares’ performance on Friday also affected local trading on Monday, Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Analyst Claire T. Alviar said in a Viber message.

“The local bourse declined… as investors extended their profit taking after the market rallied for four straight weeks. The negative cues from the US markets last Friday amid the rise in the US January producers price index weighed further on sentiment,” Ms. Alviar said.

US stocks fell on Friday with the Nasdaq showing the largest decline after a hotter-than-expected producer prices report eroded hopes for imminent interest rate cuts by the US Federal Reserve, Reuters reported.

A Labor department report showed producer prices increased more than expected in January, feeding fears inflation was picking up after months of cooling. After five consecutive weeks of gains, all three indexes posted a weekly decline.

The S&P 500 lost 24.16 points or 0.48% to end at 5,005.57 points, while the Nasdaq Composite lost 130.52 points or 0.82% to 15,775.65. The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 145.13 points or 0.37% to 38,627.99.

Back home, all sectoral indices fell on Monday. Property declined by 1.71% or 50.14 points to 2,877.08; industrials went down by 1.51% or 141.73 points to 9,199.86; services dropped by 1.24% or 21.72 points to 1,725.51; holding firms retreated by 1.01% or 64.75 points to 6,343.95; mining and oil decreased by 0.16% or 14.58 points to 8,823.83; and financials inched down by 0.02% or 0.57 point to 1,982.93.

Value turnover dropped to P4.22 billion on Monday with 637.72 million shares switching hands from the P4.58 billion with 1.48 billion issues traded on Friday.

Decliners beat advancers, 134 versus 59, while 49 names ended unchanged.

Net foreign buying rose to P339.37 million on Monday from P258.91 million on Friday. — R.M.D. Ochave with Reuters