PSE Index In Another Sluggish Rise

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index posted another small gain Friday as sluggish investor sentiment continued.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, June 7, 2024

The index closed at 6,518.76 points, up by 8.90 points or 0.14 percent. Financials rose by 0.63 percent, industrials by 0.04 percent, property by 0.50 percent, mining and oil by 0.59 percent, and services by 0.44 percent.

However, the index-heavy holding firms dampened the gains, with market bellwether SM Investments declining to P840, down by P11 despite a high of P854.

Other holding firms that went down included San Miguel Corp., Ayala Corp., JG Summit, Cosco Capital, DMCI Holdings, and Alliance Global.

Citicore Renewable Energy Corporation (CREC) made its debut today, completing its offering of 1,785,715,000 common shares, with a 10% over-allotment option of up to 178,572,000 secondary common shares, at a price of PHP2.70 per share.

CREC's share price finished the day unchanged despite strong international support, including an investment from the UK Government’s MOBILIST programme, an initiative by the British Investment Partnership to support infrastructure development and green transmission in the Philippines and Southeast Asia.

Port operator ICTSI emerged as the most active stock with trades of P573 million, rising by 60 centavos to P354.40.

It was followed by BDO Unibank with trades of P477 million, closing P1.90 higher at P139.90. Jollibee Foods had trades of P266 million, rising to P230, up by P1.20. Value turnover amounted to P5.04 billion with 88 gainers, 90 losers, and 63 shares unchanged.

There was net foreign buying of P390 million, with foreign buying at P2.469 billion and foreign selling at P2.078 billion.

Analysts said the market may trade sideways for the rest of the month as there is no significant economic development that will spur investments into the PSE.

Among the gainers were Metrobank, Globe Telecom, PLDT, EastWest, ACEN Corp., First Gen, Synergy Grid, Century Pacific Food, GT Capital, LT Group, DoubleDragon, SSI Group, Robinsons Land, Converge ICT, Cebu Air, Robinsons Retail, Aboitiz Equity, Bloomberry, EEI, Meralco, Manila Water, Atlas Mining, Apex Mining, and Megaworld.

The losers included Petron, D&L Industries, Emperador, Ayala Land, Puregold, ABS-CBN, OceanaGold, Wilcon Depot, Philodrill, Belle Corp., Monde Nissin, SPNEC, Bank of the Philippine Islands, China Bank, Figaro Coffee, and AgriNurture.

Unchanged stocks were PNB, Security Bank, Alternergy, San Miguel Food and Beverage, PAL, DigiPlus, Cebu Landmasters, Shakey's Pizza, Shell Pilipinas, and Philex Mining.