Last-Minute Selldown Clobbers PSE Index

Last-minute selling from foreign investors clobbered the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today sending the share prices of holding firms in huge declines resulting in a 236.38 points or 3.61 percent drop to 6,320.19 points.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, August 13, 2021

Diversified Securities' Jose Ricardo Garcia attributed the last-minute selling to rebalancing of foreign portfolios as the PSE index will have a new composition in its basked come Monday, August 16.

"The market was up 20 plus points before the bell and then boom, the selling started!" he said.

Value turnover amounted to P14.36 billion with 63 gainers, 134 losers, and 45 shares unchanged with the holding firms sub-index getting the worst hit, dropping by 5.21 percent, followed by property, down by 3.88 percent, and then the services, with 2.54 percent loss. Mining and oil was down by 1.86 percent and industrials by 1.12 percent. The financials survived the selldown with a 0.02 percent rise.

Market bellwether SM Investments lost P67 to P912, down by 6.84 percent while the other holding firms that closed lower include JG Summit, down by P3.10 to P55 and LT Group, down 52 centavos to P9 and Ayala Corp., down P17 to P710. ICTSI declined by P8.80 to P170 while PLDT rose by P10 to P1,275.

Ayala Energy topped the gainers column with a 6.58 percent gain and emerged the most active stock with trades of P3.335 billion as it rose by 58 centavos to P9.40, while Converge was the second most active with P2.83 billion in trades as it closed at 27.35, up by 50 centavos.

ACEN and Converge are to be included in the PSE index next Monday, August 16, at which time Emperador, which lost 4 centavos to P12.30 on trades of P1.42 billion, will exit the PSE basket. DMCI, however, gained 10 centavos to P5.90

Property firms Ayala Land and SM Prime declined by P1.65 to P31.70 and by P1.30 to P32.25, respectively.

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