PSEi drops to 6,400 level on profit taking

Philippine stocks dropped further on Thursday, pulling the main index back to the 6,400 level, as investors continued to pocket their gains from the market’s US-China truce-driven rally earlier this week.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) retreated by 1.29% or 84.95 points to close at 6,466.86, while the broader all shares index dropped by 0.8% or 30.44 points to 3,768.44.

“The local market declined further as investors continued with their profit taking while waiting for strong positive catalysts,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Senior Research Analyst Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco said in a Viber message. “Investors are also trading cautiously while going through the first quarter corporate results.”

“Foreigners were net sellers for the day, adding to the market’s decline,” Mr. Tantiangco said.

Net foreign selling stood at PHP 218.23 million on Thursday, a reversal of the PHP 356.25 million worth of net buying recorded on Wednesday.

Mixed earnings results of listed companies caused the market to drop on Thursday, Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message.

Almost all sectoral indices closed lower. Mining and oil dropped by 3.34% or 307.68 points to 8,903.61; financials went down by 2.97% or 74.19 points to 2,421.43; property shed 2.46% or 57.4 points to end at 2,272.20; services sank by 0.4% or 8.65 points to 2,131.22; and industrials declined by 0.28% or 26.37 points to 9,164.25.

Meanwhile, holding firms rose by 0.53% or 29.38 points to 5,478.70.

Value turnover dropped to PHP 6.49 billion on Thursday with 1.54 billion shares traded from the PHP 9.5 billion with 1.56 billion issues exchanged on Wednesday.

Market breadth was negative as decliners outnumbered advancers, 108 versus 77, while 61 names were unchanged.

Mr. Ricafort said the PSEi’s immediate minor support is at 6,275-6,385 and resistance is at 6,591.94.

Global stocks fell on Thursday while the dollar stumbled as the euphoria from market tailwinds earlier in the week fizzled out, with traders looking to US data later in the day for further catalysts, Reuters reported.

Investors were greeted with a plethora of good news earlier this week from a US-China trade-war truce to a raft of headline-grabbing investment deals from the Middle East during US President Donald J. Trump’s Gulf tour, in moves that breathed new life into battered global stocks.

But most of the optimism died down by Thursday, leaving MSCI’s broadest index of Asia-Pacific shares outside Japan down 0.15% and Wall Street futures slightly lower after notching marginal gains during the overnight cash session.

While the trade deal between the US and China gave markets some reason to cheer, the absence of clarity over Mr. Trump’s trade policies has left markets with a sense of lingering uncertainty over the global economic outlook. — R.M.D. Ochave with Reuters