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MANILA, Philippines - Philippine share prices on Thursday pulled back from the previous day's fresh record high, as investors took profits after the overnight drop in Wall Street.
After five straight sessions, the Philippine Stock Exchange composite index slid 12.92 points to end at 5,173.28. Eighty-two stocks advanced, 69 declined, and 52 were unchanged.
Trading value hit P5.5 billion as 1.16 billion stocks changed hands.
The market correction was expected as the Dow’s drop gave investors reason to book profits ahead of the listing of George S.K. Ty's GT Capital Holdings on Friday, Jun Calaycay of Accord Capital Equities Corp. said.
“The market continues to display a resilient character, limiting intraday losses - in fact, narrowing it by a third at the close. Thus far, the interplay between domestic feeds and uncertainties from the external front have favored the former,” he said.
Calaycay said the market already priced in a stay in the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) key interest rates when its policy-making Monetary Board meets on Thursday. Liquidity is also expected to rise with GT Capital’s listing.
The benchamark index will test the 5,200 resistance with the 5,139 support seen to hold, Calaycay said.
In its latest Market Call, First Metro Investments Corp. and the University of Asia and the Pacific (FMIC-UA&P) Capital Market Research Center said trading volume during the first quarter jumped by 33.6 percent - a sign that more investors are riding the wave of rising share prices.
“Apart from the solid fundamentals of the economy and listed firms' optimistic earnings outlook, the extension of trading to 3:30 p.m has boosted average daily trading volume to P7.8 billion in 1Q. Foreign investors stepped up their involvement in the domestic bourse as they accounted for roughly 40 percent of the total trades which reached P502 billion for the quarter," the research firm said.
FMIC-UA&P said even though total foreign selling rose faster than foreign buying at 54.3 percent and 25.3 percent, respectively, foreigners were still net buyers of P16.5 billion worth of shares or around $385 million.
At the Philippine Dealing System, the peso firmed up against the US dollar at 42.610 from the previous 42.650, with total volume traded falling to $825.65 million from $947 million on Tuesday.
FMIC-UA&P said the local currency in the first quarter averaged 43.05 against the greenback or 1.7 percent higher than the 43.8 in same quarter last year.
“We still expect the peso to be within the range of P42 to P44 to a dollar as it remains to be less volatile. We also expect BSP to continue to prefer an appreciation bias to offset the increasing trend in oil prices,” the research firm said.
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