PSE Index Down As Total Trades Halved

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index declined Monday by a milestone level with total trades reduced to half of the average, as investors opted to wait before committing to the market following continued foreign selling.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, June 10, 2024

The index closed at 6,458.64 points, down by 60.12 points or 0.92 percent. All the sub-indices posted significant losses, although the holding firms were in the green for a while.

Market analysts foresee the index possibly going down to 6,100 points.

The market may test the 6,400 support level once more, as the value turnover was just a shadow of its previous trading days, with only PHP 2.99 billion, half of the average trading value.

Analysts said continued foreign selling remains the main overhang for the market, with net foreign selling hitting PHP 161 million on foreign buying of PHP 1.256 billion and foreign selling of PHP 1.418 billion.

Additionally, the depreciation in the value of the peso against the dollar and continued high interest rates compounded the market's woes.

Financials lost 1.62 percent, industrials by 0.45 percent, holding firms by 0.10 percent, services by 1.18 percent, mining and oil by 1.92 percent, and property down by 1.07 percent.

Market bellwether SM Investments was up by PHP 7 to PHP 847, one of the two gainers among the Top 10 most active stocks. The other gainer was Universal Robina, which gained PHP 7 to PHP 826.

Losers outnumbered gainers almost by a factor of 2, with 109 losers to 58 gainers and 66 shares unchanged. Investors focused their buying on second-liners and stayed away from blue chips.

Among the losers were Jollibee Foods, Ayala Corp., Monde Nissin, DMC Holdings, GT Capital, DoubleDragon, JG Summit, Globe Telecom, PLDT, Converge, Dito CME, Apex Mining, Atlas Mining, SM Prime, Ayala Land, Bank of PI, Meralco, Metrobank, BDO Unibank, Security Bank, Union Bank, Cebu Air, Belle Corp., Bloomberry, D&L Industries, Figaro Coffee, Synergy Grid, Petron, ACEN Corp., and Manila Water.

The gainers were China Bank, First Gen, Roxas and Co., Megawide, AREIT, RL Commercial RT, PAL, Digiplus, Oriental Petroleum, and Philodrill.

Those unchanged were EastWest, Nickel Asia, PNB, Alternergy, Basic Energy, Semirara Mining, SPNEC, Axelum, SMC Food and Beverage, Aboitiz Equity, LT Group, San Miguel, ABS-CBN, CEMEX Holdings, GMA-7, Aboitiz Equity, Megaworld, and LT Group.