PSE Index Declines As Wall Street Gains

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today declined below the 7,000-point level as investors cashed in their gains after the Wednesday recovery, though the drop was minimal.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, February 2, 2023

This is an indication of the optimism over the market, which closed 49.57 points lower or 0.71 points to 6,986.19 points.

The market opened at 7,027.92 points and went up just a point before going down on profit-taking and went down to as low as 6,959.78 points but later recovered at the close as industrials rose by 0.24 percent, financials up by 0.20 percent, services gained 0.75 percent and mining and oil went up by 3.04 percent.

Accounting for the decline in the index was the big drop in the index-heavy holding firms which closed 1.59 percent lower and the additional burden from the drop in property which went down by 1.65 percent.

Market bellwether SM Investments declined by 1.69 percent or P16 to P930 while JG Summit went down by 3.30 percent to P54.15, a loss of P1.85. Value turnover was 50 percent higher to P8.93 billion with 114 gainers, 67 losers, and 56 shares unchanged.

Emerging as the top-traded stock was Ayala Land with trades of P552 million as it closed 75 centavos down to P29.75, a loss of 2.46 percent. It was followed by Universal Robina with trades of P523 million closing P4.40 higher or 3.04 percent to P148.90, and third most active was BDO Unibank which rose by 30 centavos to P125.50 with trades of P501 million.

Among the gainers today were Robinsons Land, up by 58 centavos to P16.20, PLDT, up by P29 to P1,457, Globe Telecom, up P20 to P2,170, Security Bank, up 75 centavos to P93, and Metrobank, up 10 centavos to P59.60.

The losers included SM Prime, which went down by 85 centavos to P36.90, DM Consunji, down 10 centavos to P11.70, ICTSI, down 60 centavos to P218, Emperador, down 10 centavos to P20.40, Jollibee Foods, down P3 to P242, and Ayala Corp, down P25 to P725.

Union Bank and Bank of PI were both unchanged at P97 and P110 respectively.

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