PSEi drifts lower, ignores Wall St. overnight rebound

The Philippine Stock Exchange index drifted lower Wednesday, ignoring an overnight rebound in Wall Street, in the absence of market-moving news on the domestic front to buoy the bellwether. “There is just no impetus to push share prices one way or another, [thus] the sideways movement of the market for the past weeks," said analyst Martin Santos of First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp. The PSEi shed 12.78 points or 0.31 percent to close at 4,111.05. Some 2.14 billion shares valued at P5.235 billion changed hands. Decliners outpaced advancers 79 to 61, and 41 issues remained unchanged. The market opened "strong" but eventually slid, said Santos, noting that the sideways movement of the market seemed “healthy as we’re building a base from which another rally may yet begin." The PSEi has been testing 4,120 but has to make a convincing break, he added. Santos pointed out that the market dropped in the midst of speculation that the Federal Reserve is likely to introduce more stimulus measures to support the US economy. In New York overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Average gained 46.10 points or 0.4 percent to close at 10,858.14 despite a slump in US consumer confidence. A monthly survey showed Tuesday that US consumer confidence in September dropped to its lowest level since February, an AP report said. —Jesse Edep/VS, GMANews.TV