PSE INDEX DOWN FRACTIONALLY

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE ) index raced to a big start but sputtered on profit taking before managing to just post a fractional decline on buybacks to close at 6,859.46 points, down 8.42 points or 0.12 percent.

Trading remained hefty as the locals again responded to the foreign selling which amounted to P2.7 billion against foreign buying of P2.238 billion, for a net selling of P461 million, with decliners just a bit ahead of gainers, 110 to 106, with 44 shares unchanged.

Opening more than 20 points from it's Tuesday close, the PSE index raced to another plus 20 point gain before declining to a low of 6,819.42 points, and then nosed up a bit for a respectable finish.

Local investors swarmed the foreign sellers with market bellwether SM Investments bucking a P30 million foreign selling as it posted a P4 hike to P1,010.

The same was true for food giant Jollibee Foods, which went up by 20 centavos to P180 even with foreign selling of P56 million.

The top three most active stocks were second liners, Ayala Energy, up 14 centavos to P7.74, with P1.2 billion in trades followed by Dito CME, which declined by 16 centavos to P13.50 on trades of P1.196 billion.

Lastly, Apollo Global was down P0.012 to P0.212 with trades of P567 million.

Value turnover was a hefty P9.576 billion with industrials and holding firms, respectively up by 0.26 percent and 0.16 percent.

The financials were down 0.32 percent, services, 0.26 percent, mining and oil, 0.35 percent and property, 0.39 percent.

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