MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market dropped for the third straight session, plunging to a 14-month low as investors continued to search for fresh leads that could potentially come later this week.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) slipped by 0.7 percent or 43.41 points to end yesterday’s session at 6,153.47.
This was the PSEi’s lowest since closing at 6,110.88 on Nov. 14, 2023.
The broader All Shares index also finished in negative territory, declining by 0.45 percent or 16.33 points to 3,623.52.
“We’re still seeing a sell-off in big caps ahead of the index recomposition on Friday, where we expect a downweight across the board for existing index issues to make room for the entry of AREIT and China Banking Corp.,” AP Securities research head Alfred Benjamin Garcia said.
AREIT will be a first time member of the PSEi since its August 2020 stock market debut, while Chinabank found its way back to the main index since its first inclusion from May 2010 to May 2011.
The two companies will replace Nickel Asia and Wilcon Depot, which will become constituents of the PSE MidCap index.
Garcia said that a lot of investors also remained on the sidelines ahead of the US Federal Reserve meeting and the Philippine GDP report on Thursday.
Sectors were dominated by those in the red, with services suffering the biggest loss at 3.66 percent.
Financials and industrial, meanwhile, rose by 1.55 percent and 0.13 percent, respectively.
Market breadth remained negative as decliners crushed advancers, 112 to 66, while 61 issues were unchanged.