Index plunges 100 points on lack of new leads

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippine stock market was unable to sustain its strength yesterday with the main composite index sinking by 100 points to close at the 7,400 level again.

Similarly, the broader All Shares index, meanwhile, also lost and finished in the red yesterday, declining by 39.88 points or 0.88 percent.

The rest of the counters were problematic as well and if not for the mining and oil gauge which finished in positive territory, it would have been another major red day at the market yesterday.

Nevertheless, all the sectors finished in the negative zone.

Total value turnover reached P8.497 billion. Market breadth was negative with a broad gap between decliners and advancing stocks.

Advancing stocks reached 124, outpacing 73 advancing stocks.

Gio Perez of Papa Securities said there were not enough new leads to change market sentiment.

“The story remains the same with negative sentiment due to US markets once again diving last night, along with renewed net foreign selling, proving to be the bane for the index. Recall how the Dow and S&P500 both fell around two percent. Meanwhile, net foreign selling for today hit a hefty P652 million, albeit slightly lower than yesterday’s P822 million,” Perez said.

“We remain cautious moving forward for the week as it looks like the index is still being swayed by the aforementioned movements from abroad,” he said.