POSITIVE SENTIMENT LIFTS PSE INDEX

Positive sentiments on the upcoming business expansion and higher government spending on addressing the infrastructure build-up nudged all the sub-sectors upward with the property sub-index posting significant gains to lead to a 48 point or 0.70 percent rise to 6,918.41 points.

The market greeted the budget deficit of P200.3 billion for May, up from last year's May level of P44 billion due to its economic implications on the government's push to ramp infra spending, plus additional budgets for addressing the COVID-19 vaccine that could lead to higher economic growth.

Ayala Land and SM Prime towed the property sub-sector to a hefty 1.8 percent rise, with the former up by P1.05 and the latter by 50 centavos to P37.15, as the other sub-sectors posted muted gains: financials, up by 0.13 percent, industrials, by 0.63 percent, holding firms, 0.10 percent, services, 0.90 percent, and mining and oil 0.90 percent.

Market bellwether SM Investments was unchanged at P1,000, while Ayala Energy was also unchanged at P8.50.

Second liners Ever Gotesco, Boulevard Holdings, and Philippine Estates were heavily traded to barge into the Top 20 most active stocks, which was led by BDO Unibank with trades of P235 million as it lost 30 centavos to P114.10.

Ever, Boulevard and Philippine Estates picked up on speculation on their property thrusts with respective closing prices of P0.51, up by P0.05; P0.0133, up by P0.0018, and P0.74 up by P0.02.

Another second liner that was heavily traded was Swift Foods, which rose by P0.002 to close at P0.168.

Net foreign selling amounted to P1.443 billion but included a block sale of P1.1 billion of Ayala Land, which, together with SM Prime, had foreign buying of P86 million and P49 million, respectively.

San Miguel, with foreign selling of P73 million, lost 70 centavos to P113.50, while LT Group, even with foreign selling of P88 million, managed to squeak to P13, up by 6 centavos.

WEEKLY FEATURE : PAL READY TO SOAR WITH PANDEMIC