PSE Index Falls Below Milestone Level

Stocks opened 16 points higher and briefly added another five points before succumbing to a sell-off, with the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index closing lower at 6,288.88 — down 27.05 points or 0.43 percent.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, August 18, 2025

Market breadth reflected pessimism.

Mining shares posted hefty gains as gold prices rose 0.40 percent to $3,349, lifting the mining and oil sub-index by 3.40 percent.

However, the rally was not enough to counter overall market weakness, even with modest advances in Industrials (+0.16 percent) and Services (+0.15 percent).

Conglomerates slipped 0.32 percent, dragged down by market bellwether SM Investments, which fell ₱13 to ₱783 after reaching an early high of ₱805.

Financials dropped 1.46 percent, while Property edged down 0.19 percent.

Global port operator ICTSI led the most actively traded stocks with ₱629 million in transactions, gaining 60 centavos to ₱485.60.

Gaming stock DigiPlus followed with ₱469 million in trades, rising 3.27 percent to ₱26.85, up 85 centavos.

Another gaming stock, Bloomberry, also closed higher, while PhilWeb declined.

Total trades amounted to ₱6.177 billion. Net foreign buying reached ₱252 million, with foreign inflows at ₱2.857 billion versus outflows of ₱2.605 billion.

Market breadth showed 85 gainers, 105 losers, and 63 unchanged, including SPNEC, Vitarich, First Gen, MRC Allied, Basic Energy, Cebu Landmasters, ABS-CBN, Filinvest REIT, Filinvest Land, Megaworld, and Dito CME.

Among the gainers were China Bank, Security Bank, Jollibee Foods, Belle Corp., Nickel Asia, Apex Mining, Atlas Mining, Philex Mining, Alternergy, Synergy Grid, Roxas & Co., D&L Industries, Citicore REIT, Abacore, Aboitiz Equity, LT Group, Cebu Air, PLDT, MacroAsia, Vista Land, VistaREIT, Universal Robina, JG Summit, GT Capital, and Alliance Global.

Among the losers were BDO Unibank, Ayala Land, SM Prime, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Metrobank, Petron, Shell Pilipinas, Ayala Corp., DMCI Holdings, Monde Nissin, DoubleDragon, OceanaGold, SSI Group, Philippine Seven, GMA Network, Wilcon Depot, Haus Talk, Converge, Aboitiz Power, ACEN Corp., Philippine National Bank, Meralco, and Manila Water.