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MANILA, Philippines - A selloff of Banco De Oro Unibank (BDO) shares dragged down the stock market on Tuesday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 54.8 points or 1.06 percent to 5,056.48. Losers outnumbered gainers, 91 to 75, with 44 stocks unchanged. Trading value reached P5.28 billion as 3.48 billion stocks changed hands.
The financial and holding firm indices were the biggest losers, shedding two and 1.31 percent, respectively.
BDO led the bleeders, shedding 6.95 percent to P60.95 a share. The selloff was triggered by its plan to boost its capital through the sale of additional shares in a rights offering of three new shares for every share held by a stockholder.
The country's biggest lender in assets intends to raise $1 billion to head off the central bank's shift to stricter capital requirements under Basel 3.
“It seems like investors had concerns on the dilution of their ownership given BDO’s plan to conduct a rights offer,” said Freya Natividad, investment analyst at 2TradeAsia.com.
Besides BDO, the impending market debut of GT Capital Holdings Inc. also may have led foreign money to pull out of the market to take positions in the private holding firm of Metrobank's George S.K. Ty.
GT Capital will being its initial public offering on April 10, the first for the year, with the company pricing its shares at P455 apiece.
"There may probably be some bargain hunting on Wednesday. Investors are hoping that when we get back after the Easter, the market will be more active," said Joey Roxas of Eagle Securities.
“If there are quick drops tomorrow, I think people will buy,” he said.
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