Index retreats to 7,200-pt level

MANILA, Philippines - The bellwether index fell back yesterday to the 7,200 level after a two-day slump that was driven by profit taking and the retreat in Wall Street.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped 0.42 percent or 31.07 points to 7,279.87, while the broader all shares index slipped 0.36 percent or 16.26 points to 4,496.21.

“It’s more of a profit-taking. For overseas trends, the Dow Jones went down,” said Freya Natividad, analyst at online brokerage firm 2TradeAsia.com.

“The correction is healthy to gather enough strength to push the local to a market higher range,” she added.

Wall Street pulled back on Thursday given data that jobless claims increased last week. The Dow Jones industrial average lost 0.3 percent or 42.47 points to 15,233.22, while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index shed 0.5 percent or 8.31 points to 1,650.47.

Locally, all counters, save for financial firms that inched up just 0.03 percent or 0.52 point to 1,893.94, were in the red.

The decliners were paced by mining and oil that continued to be a laggard, falling 1.91 percent or 344.69 points to 17,688.26.

Other subindices are already feeling supply pressures, Natividad said.

Asia United Bank (AUB), the commercial lender of the Rebisco Group, listed in the local bourse yesterday as it concluded its P8.36-billion initial public offering.

AUB, the second company to list in the local stock market this year, was the top-traded issue as it surged 9.47 percent or P9 to P104.