LOCAL shares slipped on Friday, as companies started reporting their third quarter earnings results.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) lost 28.48 points or 0.35% to close at 7,922.5, while the broader all-shares index dipped by 13.13 points or 0.27% to 4,767.03.

“Local shares traded mostly negative as investors digested the release of major companies reporting corporate earnings and speculation with the latest MSCI rebalancing next month,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said.

“Most banking sector stocks traded higher today and for the weeks as investors positively reacted to the latest RRR (reserve requirement ratio) cut,” he added.

The central bank on Thursday said its policy-setting Monetary Board (MB) decided to slash the RRR of universal, commercial and thrift banks by another 100 basis points (bp), bringing total reductions to their reserve ratios for this year to 400 bps. The latest reduction will take effect in December.

Mr. Limlingan said that investors took refuge outside as the US stocks climbed on a slew of corporate earnings anew.

“The S&P 500 climbed by 0.2% towards 3,010.29 while the Nasdaq Composite gained gained 0.8% to 8,185.80. The DJIA bucked the trend as it shed 28.42 points and settled at 26,805.52. Gold scaled a near two-week peak after US economic data reaffirmed expectations of another rate cut,” he said.

Next week, there is a U.S. Federal Reserve meeting ending Oct. 30 and a Bank of Japan meeting ending Oct. 31. The Fed is widely seen to slash interest rates for a third time this year.

At the local stock market, three out of six sectoral indices ended in the green. The financials sector went up 6.95 points or 0.37% to 1,876.79. Services went up 0.54 points or 0.03% to 1,531.53, while mining and oil went up 81.15 points or 0.88% to 9,209.23.

Meanwhile, the industrial sector fell 66.3 points or 0.62% to 10,470.07. Holding firms declined 39.72 points or 0.51% to 7.745.04, while the property sector dropped 25.94 points or 0.61% to 4,166.29.

Value turnover rose to P6.97 billion on Friday, from P5.19 billion on Thursday, with 1.38 billion issues changing hands.

Net foreign selling stood at P307.27 million. — Jenina P. Ibañez

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