PSE Index Crumbles

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today crumbled on a host of economic uncertainties with investors selling down their positions and settling at 6,020.07 points, down by 230.47 points or 3.83 percent with only one gainer from among the Top 20 active stocks.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, September 27, 2022

It was the fourth biggest loss since February 6, 2020, when it went down by 3.86 percent.

Diversified conglomerate San Miguel emerged the most active with trades of P1.5 billion as it went down by 15 centavos to P97.50 in a day that saw the overall value turnover reach P20.81 billion on fears about the big decline in the value of the peso vis-a-vis the dollar, the rise in interest rates that will hit corporates and the lack of optimism for the year as per surveys by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas.

Losers were six times more than gainers at 189 to 28 with 837 shares unchanged as all the sub-indices posted big declines unseen in the past two years.

Holding firms posted the biggest loss at 4.58 percent followed by financials with 4.29 percent and then property at 3.92 percent. The other sub-indices also declined with industrials losing 2.96 percent, services by 2.19 percent, and mining and oil by 2.93 percent.

Only Globe Telecom survived today's market debacle as it posted a P4 gain to P2,178 owing to its discounted stock rights offering while two recent IPOs went down below their IPO offerings.

These were Synergy Grid which closed at P11.94, down by 32 centavos while Converge went down by 14 centavos to P15. Synergy and Converge had respective IPO pricing of P12 and P16.80, respectively.

The market actually went down to a dizzying low of 5,9626.17 points but bargain hunters pushed up the index above another milestone level. Analysts said that the market will test the next resistance level at 5,500 points.

The market had been on edge with the negative sentiments that were building up and the economic uncertainties due to the higher interest rates foisted by the US Fed became the catalyst for the hefty decline.

Market bellwether SM Investments closed P45 lower to P763 but it fell to as low as P747.50 while Ayala Land lost 60 centavos to P24.40, SM Prime by P1.80 to P32.28, BDO Unibank by P4.80 to P115, Bank of PI by P4.35 to P88.85, PLDT by P62 to P1,558, Semirara Mining by 50 centavos to P40.50, Jollibee Foods by P7 to P229, Metrobank by P3.30 to P48.55, ACEN Corp by 36 centavos to P5.95, GT Capital by P23.20 to P450.60, JG Summit by P2.45 to P44.85, ICTSI by 90 centavos to P181, and Ayala Corp by P26 to P670.

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