PSE Index Dabbles Into Red Zone

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today closed with a smallish loss of 2.06 points or 0.03 percent as the bargain-hunting ran out of time to push up the market in another day of lackluster trade.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, July 5, 2023

Even with the rise in the US markets and the pause in the Bangko Sentral rate increase, investors were weighed down by the bad news on the reinclusion of the country in the gray list by the Financial Action Task Force, which monitors anti-money laundering programs of countries.

Metro Pacific provided positive vibes to the market with its announcement of a higher tender price offer once it pushes through its delisting thrust, resulting in the issue topping the most active stocks with trades of P417 million as it rose by 19 centavos or 3.97 percent to P4.96.

The holding company bared a tender offer price of P5.20 per share, which is lower than its book value. Whether stockholders will approve the offer or not remains to be seen, market participants said.

Ayala Corp was the second most active with trades of P278 million as it went down by P8 to P630, followed by BDO Unibank with trades of P275 million as it also went down by 10 centavos to P137.60.

The market trades swung from one of the pendulums to the other hitting a low of 6,446.79 until it closed at its highest price point.

Only the financials and the holding firms posted gains of 0.14 percent and 0.11 percent respectively while industrials went down by 0.51 percent, services by 0.009 percent, mining and oil by 0.65 percent and property by 0.25 percent.

Total value turnover went up a bit from Tuesday but remained below the P6 billion daily average with total trades of P3.8 billion.

There were 97 losers, 69 advancers and 61 shares unchanged. Market bellwether SM Investments posted a loss of P6 to P932 while Globe Telecom rose by P13 to P1,762, ICTSI, by P2.20 to P203, and Bank of PI by P1.20 to P108.

Digiplus Interactive also barged into the top 20 active stocks with a 25-centavo rise to P3.68 on trades of P177 million as it disclosed higher profits on its online games. JG Summit was the other gainer with a 10-centavo gain to P46.10.

The losers were SM Prime, which was down by 5 centavos to P33.65, Aboitiz Power, down by 60 centavos to P36.05, Universal Robina, down by P2 to P138, PLDT, down by P13 to P1,330, and Emperador, down by 10 centavos to P20.90.

Closing out the list of losers were Metrobank, down by 40 centavos to P55, Monde Nissin, down by 11 centavos to P7.83, GT Capital, down by P7 to P508, and AgriNurture, down by 7 centavos to P6.22.

Ayala Land and Jollibee Foods were unchanged at P24.70 and P242.80, respectively.

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