Stocks retreat as investors take profit from bull run

MANILA, Philippines — Investors were quick to take money from the market yesterday after the bulls came charging on Monday.

Profit taking prevailed, pushing the index lower to close at 8,263.57, down 101.72 points or 1.21 percent.

Likewise, the broader All Shares gauge was down 30.97 points or 0.61 percent to finish at 5,012.99.

Majority of the sectors were also down except for two gainers – the mining and oil and the financials.

Total value turnover reached P10.49 billion even as market breadth was positive 121 to 85 while 48 issuers were unchanged.

Christopher Mangun of AAA Securities gave this comment: “Most global equities markets were flat in the last trading session as investors await U.S. retail sales data and corporate earnings coming out before the end of the week. “Here at the PSE, the main index ended the day lower as we saw some profit-taking with most of it happening right before the close. This was to be expected after the big day that we had on Monday.”

He noted that Ayala-led BPI tried to carry the whole index again today, ending the day as one of the top gainers, up 7.3 percent.

“But with several other blue-chips down more than three percent like BDO, Globe, Aboitiz Equity Ventures, First Gen and Megaworld, the pressure was too much,” he said.

Foreign funds continued to pour in however.

“We had another heavy volume day with trading value at P10.15 billion excluding block sales, topping yesterday’s trading volume,” Mangun said.