PSE BUCKS TERROR BOMBING

By The Financial District
Aug 25, 2020
2 min read

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index bucked the terrorist bombing in Jolo, Sulu today overcoming its earlier losses to notch a small gain of 9.86 points or 0.17 percent to close at 5,953.44 points in light trade.

Actually, the PSE index went up to a high of 5,962.89 after dropping to a low of 5,893.14 points as foreign sellers continued their sell down of select blue chip stocks on the additional worries from the terrorist bombing where an unknown lady bomber detonated herself resulting in 15 deaths.

The locals took the slack provided by the continued sell down by foreign investors to ferry the PSE index to positive territory which can be gleaned by the uptick in closing prices of stocks like BDO Unibank, which had P76 million foreign sales and, Ayala REIT, which had P119 million in foreign sales. BDO closed with a gain of 45 centavos to P87.50 while AREIT rose by 10 centavos to P25.80.

Net foreign selling stood at P463 million on foreign buying of P1.723 billion and foreign selling of P2,186 billion with value turnover at a minimal at P4.559 billion. There were 84 gainers against 109 losers and 51 shares unchanged.

The financial, holding and property sectors posted losses while the industrial mining and oil and services went up with the telco stocks rising. PLDT went up by P48 to P1,448.00, Globe Telecom rose by P10 to P2,110 while Dito gained 15 centavos to P3.35.

Market bellwether SM Investments was the most active stock with transactions of P569.99 million that include a cross sale of P364 million that was lumped under the foreign buying portfolio. But it posted a P2 loss to P881 on continued weakness in the stock market P2.95 to P70.00.

Market darling Merry Mart gained 2 centavos to P3.23 while the other gainers include Robinsons Retail, up P2.95 to P70; URC, up P2.50 to P142.50; SM Prime, up 5 centavos to P30.05; GTCapital, up P1 to P401; while the losers include Ayala Land, down 20 centavos to P30.40; Manila Water, down 28 centavos to P13.22 and Ayala Corp, down P11 to P732.