PSE Index In Big Decline

The Philippine Stock Exchange index today posted a big decline on profit taking to 6,315.93, down by 63.33 points or 0.99 points with value turnover hitting P18.04 billion on the strength of a P12.34 billion bloc sale involving shares of Meralco.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, July 29, 2022

At one point the index even went below its milestone level to a low of 6,265.95 points but recovered on gains in the financials and services sub-indices which respectively went up by 0.39 percent and 0.64 percent.

Holding firms lost 2.38 percent, industrials by 1.97 percent, mining and oil by 0.21 percent, and property by 0.07 percent.

Market bellwether SM Investments added to the woes of holding firms as it went down to P775.50 after opening at P802 and going up P2 higher in the early going while Ayala Land propped up the property sector as it emerged higher to P25.25, up by 25 centavos or 1 percent on trades of P577 million to top the most active stocks list.

Meralco lost P26 or a huge 7.10 percent on the sell-down to end at P340 while SM Prime lost 10 centavos to P36.60.

Converge went down by 70 centavos to P19 while Globe was up P8 to P2,062, and PLDT down by P38 to P1,656. Cemex, which renewed its P6 billion facility with BDO Unibank, lost 4 centavos to P0.71 while Wilcon Depot, which reported a 56 percent profit for the quarter, rose by 8.86 percent to P27.65, a gain of P2.25.

DFNN lost 29 centavos to P3.39 while PhilWeb was up by 7 centavos to P3.35. Dennis Uy's companies closed mixed. Dito was down by 4 centavos to P3.81 while Chelsea and Phoenix went up respectively by 1 centavo to P1.19 and by 24 centavos to P9.72. There were 74 gainers, 116 losers, and 50 shares unchanged.

BDO Unibank rose by 10 centavos to P119. 50, Bank of PI by P1.20 to P93, ICTSI by P4.50 to P194.20, while Jollibee went down by P5.80 to P201.20 and Metrobank lost 30 centavos to P48.60.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic