PSE Index Loses Steam

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today lost steam after a hopeful start as investors sold down their positions on continued uncertainty over the Delta variant to close 58.88 points or 0.85 percent down to 6,520.74 points.

Losers outgunned gainers by a factor of four, 172 to 41 with 24 shares unchanged as the market breadth of losing stocks saw just three bucking the downward trend out of the top 20 most active stocks.

Only market bellwether SM Investments, up by p6 to P966, Emperador, up 18 centavos to P12.10, and Aboitiz Power, up 25 centavos to P24, survived the sell down among the active stocks.

Emerging as the most active stock was Ayala energy, with trades of p268 million as it surrendered its gains of 22 centavos Monday to close at P8. Jollibee Foods was down by P7 to p198 while SM Prime declined by 55 centavos to p33.45, and Dito CME dropped by 49 centavos to P7.44.

Property stocks went down the most losing 2.08 percent while financials went down by 1.24 percent, industrials, by 1.01 percent, and mining, down by 1.17 percent. Only the services sector survived the sell down, rising by 0.08 percent.

The market perked up on opening racing to a high of 6,611.31 before melting down to a low and recovering a bit. The sell down today indicated that the Monday rise was an aberration or a dead cat's bounce, according to market players.

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