PSE INDEX FRACTIONALLY UP

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index was up fractionally in bargain hunting benefitting from the slight uptick in index-heavy shares of stock today to close higher by just 9.91 points or 0.15 percent to 6,766.83 points.

Value turnover amounted to a huge P19.009 billion boosted by a block sale involving PLDT shares amounting to P9.926 billion, which was included in the foreign selling volume as the telco saw its price drop by a peso to P1,296. Net foreign selling reached P10.5 billion if the block sale is computed as part of the foreign trades but if the block sale is excluded, the net foreign selling would just amount to P574 million.

Weakness in the stock market is still evident though as the decliners still swamped the gainers, 131 to 83 with 48 shares unchanged.

Foreign buying amounted to P2.45 billion with ICTSI getting P169 million as it went up by P2.30 to P127.60 while Metrobank had foreign buying of P115 million but lost 70 centavos to P48.

Market bellwether SM Investments was up by a peso to P1,040 but market darling Merry Mart lost 18 centavos to P5.01 in trading that saw all sub-sectors up except for property which registered a 0.79 percent decline as Ayala Land lost 75 centavos to P37 and SM Prime went down by 5 centavos to P35.85.

Dito CME was the day's most active stock with trades of P1.609 billion as it declined by a hefty 13.87 percent or by P1.90 to close P12. The second most active was Universal Robina, which was up by 2.2 percent or P2.80 to P129.90 with transactions of P478 million.

The drop in the index is attributed to the surge in Coronavirus cases plus the jarring realization that Abra Mining Industrial has been found to have been selling unlisted stocks and both the Philippine Stock Exchange and the Securities and Exchange Commission are now probing into the sale of unregistered stocks.

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