Roundup: Philippine stocks open lower this week

The Philippine market opened the week lower on Monday after investors locked in on their gains following the market's rally last week.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index declined by 0.37 percent or 9.39 points to 2,468.05, while the all share index slipped by 0.49 percent or 7.82 points to 1,582.34.

The turnover was thin with only 570 million shares worth 2.3 billion pesos (47.63 million U.S. dollars). Foreign investors were net buyers at 268 million pesos (5.55 million U.S. dollar).

Two of the six subsector indices continue to rally. The mining and oil sector climbed by 1.07 percent or 60.96 points to 5,747.76, along with the service sector which added 0.3 percent or 4.10 points to 1,344.33. The property sector meanwhile tumbled the most, losing 1.28 percent or 10.62 points to 818.89.

More stocks gained than lost 48 to 38 while 51 shares were unchanged.

"This is just part of the market's correction. Investors wanted to secure their gains after last week's 3.3 percent rally," Claire Quiray of the local brokerage Reginal Capital Development Corp. said.

Quiray said the market's "uptrend" last week was not really strong and was in fact showing mixed signals, by posting a net foreign selling of 356 million pesos (7.37 million U.S. dollars) despite closing in the green.

The analyst further said the market has been showing indecisiveness for the past couple of weeks as shown by how investors will try to secure their gains whenever the market will rally.

The market on Monday touched a high of 2,481.20 or almost five points up before intra-day profit taking trimmed down the gains.

"That shows that investors are selling on rallies. The position they are adopting is still that of cautiousness especially after the frail outlook for the economy," Quiray said.

Quiray said it is inevitable that the bleak outlook for the economy by big institutions like the World Bank saying the Philippines will slip into a recession this year and Moody's Investor Service saying that budget deficit could balloon to P350 billion this year, will put a drag on investors' sentiments.

"The Philippine market is struggling to break out of its resistance and because of this investors tend to wait and see if the market can break out of it especially since the fundamentals are not good," she said.

Stocks in the 30-company index ended mixed.

Ayala unit the Bank of the Philippine Islands lost 1.16 percent or 0.50 pesos to 42.50 pesos (88 U.S. cents) while heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. continued to rally by 0.41 percent or 10 pesos (20 U.S. cents) to 2,395 pesos (49.6 U.S. dollars). Philippines largest power distributor Manila Electric Co. was unchanged at 143 pesos (2.96 U.S. dollars).

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