PSE INDEX DOWN ON U.S. FEARS

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index declined slightly, fueled by fears of the possible disruption in the inaugural of US president-elect Joe Biden Jr., siphoning off P509 million in net foreign selling as the market saw the possible oil exploration plays on account of the rise in oil shares' prices to close at 3.02 points or 0.48 percent down to 7,203.44 points.

Foreign selling amounted to P2.238 billion, while foreign buying was P1.773 billion with market punters concentrating their buys on oil firms and some second liners as they await the Jan 20 inaugural before committing more into the market that has all subsectors down except for the industrials, which was up by 0.23 percent.

The financials lost 0.49 percent; services, 0.17 percent; mining and oil 3.08 percent holding firms, 0.30 percent and property, 0.90 percent.

The second liners again bannered the top active stocks with Basic Energy rising another 30.07 percent or 43 centavos to P1.86 on trades of P1.56 billion, followed by Abra Mining, which rose by 49.02 percent or P0.0025 to P0.0076, with trades of P909 million.

The third most active was Apollo Global, which was up P0.005 to P0.305 with value turnover of P597 million.

Market darling MerryMart was the fourth most active as it gained another 20 centavos to P7.60, followed by market belllwether SM Investments, which lost a peso to P1,050 in a day that saw hefty vale turnover of P10.38 billion with 95 shares up, 137 shares down and 43 shares unchanged.

BDO Unibank and Bank of PI, even with respective net foreign buys of P50 million and P29 million still declined, with the former losing P2.50 to P109.50 and the latter down 65 centavos to P84.70.

Metrobank, which had foreign selling of P25 million, declined by 55 centavos to P48.50, while food giant Jollibee Foods, also with net foreign selling of P50 million, dropped by 10 centavos to P194.

Dito CME went down by 18 centavos, while another second liner, Premiere Horizon, also lost 2 centavos to P2.86. Ayala Energy was up by 7 centavos to P6.55. Market players see another listless trading until after the US inaugural.

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