Index snaps rally on profit taking

MANILA, Philippines - A nine-day winning streak proved to be too hard to resist for investors as profit taking swamped the market yesterday, putting a halt to the benchmark index’ rally.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped 1.02 percent or 79.67 points to close in the red for the first time in 10 days at 7,764.39.

The broader all shares index also dipped 0.78 percent or 35.33 points to finish at 4,510.69.

“Breathers were seen given the bourse’s ascent, especially as some players locked-in gains to re-allocate cash in promising stocks.  Most checked on earnings indication from large-caps, apart from monitoring momentum improvement,” said Jason Escartin, investment analyst at F. Yap Securities.

The benchmark index followed leads of most of its Asian counterparts which were also lower yesterday except for Japan’s Nikkei which managed to pick up 1.1 percent.

Most counters locally were in the negative territory except for mining and oil firms which inched up by 0.44 percent or 71.93 points.

Three of the five counters in the red lost by more than one percent, led by industrial firms which dropped 1.22 percent or 156.47 points.

With the downbeat mood, market breadth was sour as decliners trumped advancers, 105 to 82, while 39 stocks were unchanged.

Value turnover slowed to P9.86 billion with 3.37 billion shares changing hands.