PSE Index Below 7,000 Points

The Philippine Stock Exchange index today dropped below its milestone level at 7,000 as investors still shied away from the market with the twin threats of global inflation outlook and the outflow of foreign funds into the US bond market with the telegraphed rise in US interest rates, resulting in a 40.81 points or 0.58 percent decline to 6,980.02 points.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, April 26, 2022

Value turnover also remained low at just P4.11 billion, a third below its average trades as the market braced for the effects of the expected hawkish stance of the US Fed at 50 basis points and with more rises due because of what had been termed as the late move of the American central bank.

There were 94 gainers, 91 losers and 48 shares unchanged as investors opted to buy second and third liners that have gone down the previous trading cycles.

The industrials and the property sub indices turned in gains of 0.52 percent and 0.89 percent respectively while the financials lost 1.27 percent, holding firms 1.49 percent, services by 0.67 percent and mining and oil by 0.56 percent.

Market bellwether SM Investments went down by P25 to P860%, the fourth most active as the first three biggest traded shares also posted losses: ICTSI down by P3.20 to P223 on trades of P303 million, and Converge, losing 20 centavos to P29.40, and Semirara Mining, down by 60 centavos to P28.30

PLDT and Globe gained respectively by P4 to P1,914 and P8 to P2,446, while Dito climbed back to P5.00.

Property giants Ayala Land and SM Prime went up by P6.45 to P35.20 and 35 centavos to P36.50 while BDO Unibank declined by P2 to P131, and Metrobank, by P1.40 to P54.10. Jollibee also gained P2.60 to P220.20 while Aboitiz Power advanced by 50 centavos to P33.90.

Emperador advanced further , with investors eyeing benefits of its listing in the Singapore Exchange, closing at P19.20, up by 18 centavos, while Monde rose by 36 centavos to P13.10. Among the second liners that went up were ACE Enexor, up 86 centavos to P17.28, ABS-CBN, up 32 centavos to P12.50, and MerryMart, up 5 centavos to P1.78.

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