Stocks skid on sell-off in DMCI, Semirara shares

Business World Online
Posted on July 20, 2015 06:37:00 PM
By Krista A.M. Montealegre, Senior Reporter

LOCAL share prices took a breather yesterday after a six-day advance with a sell-off in Semirara Mining and Power Corp. and its parent firm DMCI Holdings, Inc. aggravating profit taking during the session.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) pulled back by 75.96 points or 0.99% to 7,541.17
The wider all-shares index gave up 36.78 points or 0.84% to 4,308.78.

“We’ve been going up for the last few days so it’s but natural that we correct back down today,” Miko A. Sayo, trader at Angping & Associates Securities, Inc., said in a phone interview.

“We saw some profit taking because we had several consecutive days of gains and we’ve also hit resistance levels at 7,600. By our estimates, the index is fairly valued at the 7,600 to 7,700 levels,” Alexander Adrian O. Tiu, senior equity analyst at AB Capital Securities, Inc., said in a phone interview.

Prior to Monday’s decline, the main index has been on a six-day winning streak after falling to 7,363.43 on July 8.

“We’re having difficulty sustaining support at 7,550 -- the 200-day moving average. The news regarding DMC and SCC was dragging the market heavily because of the landslide,” Luis A. Limlingan, business development head at Regina Capital Development Corp., said in a phone interview, referring to the ticker symbols of DMCI Holdings and Semirara, respectively.

Both PSEi components, stocks of the Consunji-owned firms accounted for 20 points of the benchmark index’s 76-point decline, Mr. Tiu said.

The Energy department on Saturday suspended the operations of Semirara after its coal mine collapsed in Antique, killing at least seven individuals.

Semirara shed P19.50 or 13.64% -- its steepest loss since April 2009 -- to P123.50 each and DMCI Holdings lost P1.04 or 7.7% -- its sharpest drop since September 2011 -- to P12.46 apiece.

Semirara weighed on the mining and oil sub-index, which plunged 836.36 points or 6.25% to 12,536.79.

Likewise, industrials dropped 145.03 points or 1.27% to 11,239.19; holding firms fell 75.40 points or 1.1% to 6,775.95; property tumbled 9.71 points or 0.31% to 3,114.48; and financials eased 4.85 points or 0.28% to 1,684.09.

Services was the lone counter in the green, rising 3.44 points or 0.16% to 2,132.40.

Value turnover improved to P12.76 billion after 1.28 billion shares changed hands, from P6.9 billion on Thursday. Losers edged out gainers, 92 to 68, while 52 issues were unchanged.

Net foreign selling accelerated to P847.87 million from P744.80 million in the previous session.

“We may see two to three days of correction with support at 7,450 to 7,500. We’re still bullish for the next few weeks since investors will be anticipating some good earnings...,” Angping & Associates’ Mr. Sayo said. source