JG Summit leads PHL shares' decline

Share prices on the Philippine Stock Exchange closed lower on Thursday, led by the drop of JG Summit Holdings Inc. after the Gokongwei-led company sold stocks in private placement on Wednesday.

 

The benchmark PSEi fell 57.79 points or 0.77 percent to 7,416.31 at the closing bell. The All Shares index declined by 31.88 points or 0.73 to 4,336.24.

 

Over 4.0595 billion shares worth P19.7989 billion were traded. Losers led winners 106 to 65, while 48 stocks were unchanged.

 

The market was dragged by JG Summit which declined by 11.16 percent on Thursday, First Metro Securities Brokerage Corp. research analyst Ghia Paula Yuson told GMA News Online.

 

JG Summit shares closed at P62.10 Thursday, down 11.16 percent from P69.90 Wednesday.

 

JG Summit shares were sold Wednesday through an accelerated overnight equity placement at P61 per share through a top-up placement of 145,650,000 common shares from a selling shareholder.

 

The decline of JG Summit accounted for 43 points of the index's drop, Lexter Azurin, research head at Unicapital Securities Inc., told GMA News Online in a separate interview.

 

"Investors see that they should be trading at that (P61) level," he said. – VS, GMA News