MANILA, Philippines - Profit taking on the back of disappointing news abroad pulled down the benchmark index for the second straight session yesterday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) eased by 0.007 percent or 0.54 points to end at 7,268.95 while the All Shares index tumbled by 0.08 percent or 3.53 points to 4,271.18.
“The market continues to consolidate as it thirsts for market moving news,” said Astro del Castillo, managing director of First Grade Finance Inc.
Castillo said news on the continued slowdown in Europe, China’s uninspiring factory output, and downtrend in US equities dampened investor sentiment locally, pushing some to take profits.
In Wall Street, all three indexes closed in negative territory with the Nasdaq leading the plunge with a 0.57-percent drop. Tokyo’s Nikkei, meanwhile, managed to gain a modest 0.1 percent.
Locally, counters were mixed at three apiece. Industrial firms and services firms each gained 0.15 percent while holding firms shed off 0.21 percent.
Decliners continued its winning streak over advancers to 84 yesterday, 98 to 84, while 42 stocks were unchanged.
Value turnover, however, ballooned to P21.09 billion from P7.90 billion on Wednesday.