Profit taking halts PH shares’ advance

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Another round of profit taking snapped the stock market’s three-day rally on Friday, but not enough to bump it out of the 7,100 territory.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) fell by 0.83 percent or 59.57 points to close at 7,134.56 while the broader All Shares shed 0.53 percent or 22.88 points to finish at 4,250.37.

Philstocks Financial Inc. senior research analyst Japhet Tantiangco partly attributed the main index’s decline to the government’s release of surprising November inflation data and supply-chain issues disrupting the planned rollout next week of the coronavirus vaccine developed by BioNTech and Pfizer.

The Philippine Statistics Authority reported on Friday that the country’s headline inflation accelerated to a 21-month-high of 3.3 percent last month on higher prices of food and non-alcoholic drinks.

The figure was faster than October’s 2.5 percent and the year-earlier’s 1.3 percent. It also breached the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ (BSP) 2.4- to 3.2-percent estimate.

Last month’s consumer price growth was the fastest since the 3.8 percent posted in
February 2019 and higher than the 2.6-percent average outlook in a recent Manila Times poll of economists.

Technology titan IBM warned on Thursday that it had uncovered a series of cyber attacks, potentially carried out by state actors, against companies involved in the effort to distribute vaccine doses, which must be kept cold.

IBM said the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Taxation and Customs Union was one target of the attacks, as well as European and Asian companies involved in the supply chain, whose names have not been disclosed.

The vaccine developed by Pfizer and BioNTech, which on Wednesday got the greenlight from the United Kingdom to distribute it, must be stored below -70 degrees Celsius to ensure its effectiveness.

Meanwhile, net value turnover was at P8.2 billion, above the year-to-date average of P6.4 billion, which Tantiangco said showed active trading.

Foreign funds continued its losing streak for a ninth day, recording P269.08 million in net foreign selling.

Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis Limlingan also blamed profit taking and the November inflation rate for the bourse’s week-ending performance, adding that mixed results from the US markets also contributed to the decline.

The Dow Jones and Nasdaq climbed by 0.29 percent and 0.23 percent, respectively, while the S&P 500 slipped by 0.06 percent.

Most local sectors dropped, with holding firms losing the most at 1.24 percent. Financials was the only one in the green at 0.47 percent.

Total volume turnover was at 12.61 billion shares, valued at P8.47 billion.

Advancers outpaced decliners, 121 to 103, while 49 securities were unchanged.

WITH REPORTS FROM MAYVELIN U. CARABALLO AND AFP