Heavy foreign selling drags PSEi below 6,500

MANILA, Philippines — Share prices plunged anew yesterday on heavy foreign selling ahead of key policy meetings by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas and the US Federal Reserve.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) plunged by 1.72 percent or 113.45 points to finish the session at 6,501.71 after reaching an intraday low of 6,462.72. This brought the benchmark index to a five-day losing streak.

The broader All Shares index also closed in the negative territory, dropping by 1.13 percent or 42.3 points to 3,710.21.

“The PSEi fell amidst strong selling pressure as foreigners sold nearly P1.4 billion worth of shares and investors hedged their risk ahead of the monetary policy meetings of the Federal Reserve and Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas this week,” China Bank Capital Corp. managing director Juan Paolo Colet said.

In view of the failure of 6,550 to hold, Colet said the next support level is now at around 6,400.

Trading, however, was active as net value turnover improved to P6.43 billion from the previous day’s P4.45 billion.

All counters ended in the red, with four of the six indexes declining by more than one percent.

Taking the biggest hit was financials which fell by 2.52 percent, followed by services which plummeted by 1.79 percent.

Market breadth was negative as decliners battered advancers, 124 to 65, while 51 issues were unchanged.

JG Summit Holdings posted the biggest gain among index members with a 2.55-percent jump, while Monde Nissin lost the most with 7.5 percent.