Stocks fall as investors take profits

MANILA, Philippines — Investors quickly took profits from the stock market’s recent three-day runup, sending the main index back to the 6,900 territory yesterday.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index or PSEi lost 106.15 points or 1.50 percent to close at 6,951.30 while the broader All Shares index slipped by 54.29 points or 1.23 percent to end at 4,354.85.

Total value turnover reached a whopping P13.17 billion. Decliners beat advancers, 137 to 62, while 46 issues were unchanged.

The PSEi initially sustained its uptrend and hit an intra-day high of 7,098 in early trading. However, profit-taking took over by mid-session, sending the index tumbling back after finishing at an eight-month high on Wednesday, said RCBC Securities in a report.

Jonathan Ravelas, chief market strategist at BDO, said the market fell below the 7,000 level again as “it hit a wall of worry, with no volume to support the recent rally.”

In other Asian bourses, shares were mostly higher, tracking a rally on Wall Street after signs of progress on resolving the standoff in Congress over the debt ceiling.

Stephen Schwartz, a senior director at Fitch, said he believes the regional economy will start to recover with the growing vaccination efforts in Asia, which mean restrictions to curb the spread of the coronavirus will get lifted.

But southern and southeastern Asia, where vaccination rollouts have lagged, remain vulnerable to COVID-19 “pandemic-related setbacks.” Recent problems in China’s property sector are another risk, he said.

“Slower growth in China, together with the tapering we expect by the US Fed, could have broader negative repercussions, especially for the region’s emerging and frontier markets,” he said.