PSE Index Declines

The Philippine Stock Exchange index today surrendered half of its Wednesday gains in volatile trade that saw the index drop below a milestone level but managed to close at 6,600.05 points, down by 67.55 points or 1.004 percent in another above-average trading.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, May 19, 2022

The sub-indices were mixed with the holdings down by 1.84 percent, services by 1.20 percent, and property down by 1.54 percent while the financials finished 0.53 percent up, industrials by 0.20 percent, and mining and oil ahead by 1.41 percent, buoyed by a local government opening of open-pit mining.

Investors were mixed in their buying and selling with top-traded Converge showing the trading pattern as it closed unchanged after a volatile run that saw its shares surge to P30 and go down to as low as P27.65 before settling at P28, the same as Wednesday with trades of P910 million.

Market bellwether SM Investments was down by P31.10 to P839 while Semirara Mining went up by 0.25 to P31.50.

Value turnover amounted to P8.007 billion with 75 gainers, 105 losers, and 36 shares unchanged.

Analysts see the upcoming interest rate by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas as a catalyst as the adjustment is being touted ahead of a previous June resetting. Central banks around the world have been scurrying to raise their interest rates to battle the inflation spike that has affected their respective economies on account of the Ukraine crisis.

Monde was the third most active stock with a turnover of P460 million as it finally hit above P15 after hovering below P13 for a long time. It closed at P15.70, a gain of 76 centavos or up 5.09 percent to P15.70. SM Prime was the second most active stock with trades of P525 million as it lost 45 centavos to P36.25.

BDO Unibank was up by P4.80 to P131.80 while Bank of PI lost P1.10 to P95.90, showing the vagaries of the trading performance.

Among the losers were Meralco, down by P9 to P351, Jollibee, down by P2.20 to P210, PureGold, down by 25 centavos to P34, Universal Robina, down by 50 centavos to P106, PLDT down by P20 to P1,951.

The gainers included Globe, up by P40 to P2,498, Metro Pacific, up by 3 centavos to P3.81, Aboitiz Power up by P1.05 to P30.55, Megaworld up by 5 centavos to P2,85, and Ayala Corp up by P2 to P680.

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