SHARES declined on Friday after Moody’s Investors Service cut its growth outlook for the country and amid concerns over the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) situation.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 55.58 points or 0.79% to close at 6,912.85 on Friday, while the broader all shares index lost 27.69 points or 0.64% to finish at 4,295.84.
“The local bourse dropped…due to profit-taking on the last trading day of the week with a spillover of negative sentiment after Moody’s Investors Service trimmed its Philippine [economic] growth projection for 2021 to 4.8% due to the reimposition of strict lockdowns and slow vaccine rollout,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Associate Claire T. Alviar said in a Viber message.
“Net foreign selling…also weighed on the performance of the market,” she added.
“The index finished lower as the new coronavirus cases in the country remain elevated, causing some investors to feel concerned over its impact on the economy,” Timson Securities, Inc. Trader Darren Blaine T. Pangan said in a separate Viber message.
Moody’s Investors Service on Thursday downgraded its economic growth outlook for the country to 4.8% from its 5.8% forecast it gave in July.
Meanwhile, the Health department reported 21,261 COVID-19 cases with a 27% positivity rate on Thursday, which brought the national tally to over 2.30 million. Active cases stood at 177,946.
As of Sept. 16, the country has administered nearly 40.52 million COVID-19 jabs with the fully-vaccinated reaching almost 17.98 million, according to the Health department’s national vaccination dashboard.
Metro Manila is under an alert level system with granular lockdowns until the end of the month.
Majority of sectoral indices closed the week in the red except for financials, which gained 9.93 points or 0.69% to end at 1,442.46.
Meanwhile, services lost 40.8 points or 2.18% to 1,830.50; mining and oil dropped 162.86 points or 1.69% to 9,446.88; property went down by 35.88 points or 1.16% to 3,039.91; industrials declined by 74.88 points or 0.73% to 10,171.96; and holding firms shed 26.65 points or 0.38% to 6,987.06.
Value turnover soared to P15.22 billion with 1.81 billion issues traded on Friday, more than double the P7.37 billion with 1.07 billion shares seen the previous day.
Decliners beat advancers, 119 against 74, while 52 names closed unchanged.
Foreigners turned sellers anew with P812.96 million in net outflows on Friday, from the P53.9 million in net purchases seen on Thursday. — Keren Concepcion G. Valmonte