PSE DOWN ON COVID-19 FEARS

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index declined on mounting fears of the coronavirus resurging in other countries indicating challenging economic environments that could impact the country resulting in a drop of 46.68 points or 0.64 percent to 7,258.11 points with all sub sectors in the red.

Opening on a positive note, the PSE index later succumbed to profit taking, even though the net foreign selling was a low P25 million on account of foreign buying of P1.946 billion and foreign selling of P1.917 billion, with the financials down 1.48 percent; industrials, 1.21 percent; holding firms, 0.11 percent, services, 1.004 percent; mining and oil, 1.28 percent and property, 0.65 percent.

Losers overwhelmed gainers, 144 to 86, with 40 shares unchanged in a value turnover of P9.74 billion - market bellwether SM Investments bucking the trend with a gain of P18 to P1,068 with help from net foreign buying of P82 million.

The most active stock was second liner, Apollo Global, which dropped by P0.011 to P0.249 with trades of P1.02 billion, followed by AC Energy, with trades of P723 million as it lost 72 centavos to close at P6.50.

BDO Unibank gained by 10 centavos to P111, helped by foreign buying of P125 million, while Bank of PI, even with P38 million in foreign buying, succumbed to profit taking to end the day at P84, down by a peso.

Market darling MerryMart went down by 44 centavos to P7.27, while third most active stock, Dito CME, went down by 72 centavos to P11.96 on trades of P645 million.

Metrobank, with foreign selling of P28 million, declined by P2.50 to P47.50, while Globe Telecom and PLDT also lost P20 to P2,020 and P37 to P1,423, respectively.

PureGold also lost 44 centavos to P38.55, while food giant Jollibee Foods, with foreign selling of P35 million, went down by 10 centavos to P199.

Market punters say that the coronavirus scare could impact on the government's economic fundamentals that may also result in a weakness in the stock market.

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