PSE DROPS IN VOLATILE TRADE

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) today declined in volatile trade with the index swinging beyond its Tuesday close and below the 7,000-point milestone level with net foreign selling hitting P1.39 billion to close at 7,001.51 points, down 107.16 points or 1.51 percent.

Total value turnover was at a high P14.074 billion indicating the entry of local investors as the bullish sentiment spilled over on account of the vaccine news that could lead to normalcy with gainers still at a sizeable 97 shares, decliners at 120 and unchanged at 40 issues.

Market bellwether SM Investments mirrored the swings in the market today as it navigated through the day between a high of P1,030 and a low of P1,017 before settling at P1,021, down by P9 on trade of P255 million, one of the top 20 active stocks.

BDO Unibank was the most active at P881.4 million as its share price lost P1 to P107.90 while Metrobank similarly declined by 45 centavos to P48.05. Bank of PI was unchanged at P87.50 and with Security Bank gaining P2.90 to P124.90 helped by foreign buying of P10 million out of the total foreign buying of P5.925 billion.

Market darling Merry Mart was the second most active stock with violent gyrations, a high of P6.70 and a low of P5.80, its closing price to register a 7.20 percent decline as it lost 45 centavos on transactions of P663 million.

Dito rose by one centavo to P6.26 while PLDT and Globe were down with respective finishes of P1,326 , down P16 and P2,000, down P2. Converge gained 12 centavos to P16.10 while DMCI went up by 15 centavos to P5.57 and SM Prime lost 1.20 to P37.30.