STOCKS continued to fall on Monday as the bellwether index took its cue from Wall Street’s weaker performance over the weekend.

The 30-member Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 0.73% or 59.57 points to close at 8,084.45 on Monday. The broader all-shares index likewise declined by 0.56% or 27.21 points to 4,758.65.

“Investors are still reeling in from last week’s rather poor performance… And there wasn’t much positive hints coming from the United States (US) over the weekend, except for the tax bill now. But before that, Friday, US markets were down. So from there we started off weak as well,” Philstocks Financials, Inc. Senior Analyst Justino B. Calaycay, Jr. said in a phone interview yesterday.

Wall Street fell on Friday, whipsawed by developments with a probe into Russia’s alleged involvement in the US election as well as with progress on a tax bill in Congress, according to a Reuters report.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 40.76 points or 0.17% to 24,231.59; the S&P 500 lost 5.36 points or 0.20% to 2,642.22; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 26.39 points or 0.38% to 6,847.59.

Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan said the decline in US stocks was due to concerns over the tax reform bill there.

“Philippine stocks began the Monday session on a cautious note following a decline in US stocks on Friday. There was added concern because Senate Republicans narrowly passed a bill to overhaul the US tax system,” Mr. Limlingan said in a mobile phone message yesterday.

The industrial index was the lone sectoral counter that managed to stay in positive territory, albeit gaining a minimal 0.04% or 4.45 points to end at 10,645.57.

The services counter booked the largest decline at 1.3% or 20.87 points to 1,576.91, followed by financials that closed 0.77% lower or 16.05 points at 2,060.20. Mining and oil slipped 0.75% or 85.64 points to 11,306.20; holding firms dipped 0.69% or 57.10 points to 8,221.56; and property went down 0.60% or 22.99 points to 3,785.93.

“At this point if you’ll go by the market’s history, you’ll usually find the market going up in the final two to three weeks of the year, we call this the Santa Claus Rally. There’s a lot of window dressing and of course the usual optimism that accompanies the Christmas cheer,” Philstocks’ Mr. Calaycay said. 

A total of 1 billion issues changed hands on Monday, valued at P7.55 billion, down from Friday’s P9.74 billion.

Decliners outpaced advancers, 119 to 68, while 55 stocks were unchanged.

The market stood at a net foreign selling position of P474.20 million on Monday, higher than the P190.46 million logged on Friday last week. — Arra B. Francia with Reuters

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