The stock market finished the week in the red for a fourth straight day as investors keep taking in profits.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell by 1.97 percent or 136.29 points to close at its intraday low of 6,791.46 while the wider All Shares declined by 0.91 percent or 37.81 points to end at 4,100.28.
Diversified Securities Inc. trader Aniceto Pangan said that “with the sudden huge market rise, overvaluations occurred, even with the more-than-unexpected contraction in the third quarter. Thus, [the] market corrected [itself] as latest [developments] would not change the status in the near term.
The Philippines remained in recession after domestic output slid by 11.5 in the third quarter, 16.9 percent in the second and 0.7 percent in the first. This brought the contraction in gross domestic product to 10 percent in the first nine months.
According to Pangan, the main index’s immediate support is at 6,685 and immediate resistance at 6,800.
Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis Limlingan said the bourse dipped as investors realigned with the latest MSCI rebalancing, which would take effect at the end of the month.
Most of them also opted to take in profits as US stock markets were closed for Thanksgiving, he added.
Local sectors were mostly down, with holding firms losing the most at 2.9 percent. Mining and oil and services ended in the green at 1.86 percent and 0.23 percent, respectively.
Total volume turnover was at 4.52 billion valued at P27.65 billion.
Winners outpaced losers, 129 to 75, while 50 securities were unchanged.