PSEi retreats on profit-taking as correction sets in

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed lower on Friday as cash-rich investors pocketed their gains from the recent bull run. The PSEi dropped 48.19 points or 1.1 percent to close at 4,349.11, according to the PSE's online market information. Over 2.549 billion shares valued at P6.610 billion changed hands. There were 84 advancers, 59 decliners, and 46 issues unchanged. Jasper Jimenez, Banco de Oro Securities Inc. trader, said that the market "needed to correct" after it reached record highs for three successive days in a week. The PSEi's all-time high reached Thursday at 4,397.30, overshadowing Wednesday's record close at 4,381.86 and Tuesday's at 4,341.74. "What happened in the market [Friday] was a healthy technical correction," he said. A correction creates buying opportunities for investors who were left behind in the recent bull run when share prices suddenly surged. "The profit-taking earlier was a welcome relief for the market," Jimenez said in an interview after the trading session Friday. The market will rise next week — most likely to another new record highs — as more listed companies disclose their earnings in the third quarter, Jimenez said. He also said the drop in the share prices of the Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT), the country's dominant carrier, contributed to the fall of the PSEi. PLDT, listed as TEL on the PSE, slid to P2,436 per share on Friday, down by 8 percent from Thursday's closing price of P2,652 apiece. -- Jesse Edep/OMG, GMANews.TV