By The Financial District
Apr 32 min
The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today returned to its previous milestone level, finishing at its lowest price point as it failed to halt the sell-off, resulting in significant declines across all sub-indices, closing in the red.
The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, April 3, 2024
The index ended the day at 6,863.82 points, down by 96.61 points or 1.39 percent.
Property stocks experienced a substantial decline of 2.67 percent, with SM Prime losing 4.07 percent to P31.80 and Ayala Land dropping by 1.97 percent to P32.35. Financials lost 0.83 percent, industrials by 0.91 percent, holding firms by 1.22 percent, services by 0.68 percent, and mining and oil by 0.17 percent.
The market opened slightly higher than its Tuesday close and peaked at 6,964.93 points before trending downwards due to the sell-off.
Foreign selling amounted to P2.283 billion, while foreign buying was P1.612 billion, resulting in a significant net foreign selling of P670 million in muted trade, accounting for just P4.29 billion.
There were 119 losers, 71 gainers, and 49 shares remained unchanged. Analysts anticipate the release of the inflation number on Friday as a determinant of the market's performance.
Market bellwether SM Investments emerged as the most active with P487 million, losing P10.50 or 1.06 percent down to P980.50, signaling the selling pressure from foreign investors.
Other losers included BDO Unibank, Bank of PI, Union Bank, Globe Telecom, Alternergy, GT Capital, JG Summit, Ayala Corp., First Gen, Century Food, Figaro Coffee, Metrobank, Belle Corp, Nickel Asia, Dito CME, Jollibee Foods, Monde Nissin, Megawide, DMC Holdings, SPNEC, Meralco, Manila Water, and ACEN Corp.
Among the gainers were Apex Mining, PNB, Aboitiz Power, Benguet A and B shares, PAL, Bloomberry, PLDT, China Bank, PNB, Universal Robina, and Converge. Those unchanged included LT Group, Premium Leisure, Atlas Mining, Security Bank, Petron, AgriNurture, Axelum, Ginebra, Cebu Air, and ABS-CBN.