Index suffers as foreign funds continue to flee

MANILA, Philippines — Market investors continued to dump Philippine stocks, making the local stock market the worst performing index in Asia, tied with the Shanghai Composite which are both down 15 percent year-to-date.

The Philippine economic team’s no-deal roadshow in London, wherein they tried to entice fresh investments to the country, did not have any effect on the market, at least not during yesterday’s session.

Instead, the market saw its 20th straight day of net foreign selling, bringing the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) below the 7,300 mark once again or at 7,268.21 by the end of trading. This was lower by 63.96 points or 0.87 percent.

Foreign funds continue to exit with net foreign selling at P520 million, higher than Tuesday’s P160.3 million.

Likewise, the broader All Shares gauge dropped by 34.43 points or 0.76 percent to finish at 4,460.47.

The other counters except for the property index — all closed in negative territory with the financials index emerging as the biggest decliner.

Total value turnover was thin at just P4.936 billion and market breadth was negative, 121 to 66 while 54 issues were unchanged.

Market investors are waiting for the policy action of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas in its meeting today.