Philippine bourse slides on profit taking

Profit taking pulled down the Philippine stock market on Monday. The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 0.63 percent, or 36.66 points, to 5,757.54, while the broader all-share index slipped by 0.54 percent, or 20.07 points, to 3,696.39. Trading volume reached 1.55 billion shares worth 5.88 billion pesos (143.81 million U.S. Dollars) with 96 stocks declining, 67 advancing, and 49 were unchanged. Of the six counters, only the mining and oil sector bucked the trend. "Far from what we all expected, the PSEi punched through wall after wall and made new highs last week," Maria Arlysa Narciso of AB Capital Securities, Inc. said in her weekly stock market comment. While this was undoubtedly a "warm welcome" for December, the analyst said the rally came a little too early, rendering most of the stocks expensive. Technical indicators, she said, are already pointing to reaching overbought levels for stocks and the index alike. "However, we see a slight possibility that having gone up too early and too soon calls for a moment of rest or consolidation. The PSEi level that we are seeing right now came a few weeks early from the usual month or year-end window dressing," Narciso said. On Monday, profit takers took their hold on the market, losing as much as 50 points during the intra-day session before trimming down the losses. 2TradeAsia.com said investors are closely monitoring the local index's ability to hit the 5,800 mark. Most stocks in the 30-company index closed lower. Among those sold down were heavyweight Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., SM Investments Corp., and Ayala Corp.