PSE Index Inches Up in Muted Trading

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index eked out a slim gain on Wednesday, closing at 6,277.87, up just 0.20 points or 0.003 percent, after late-session selling nearly erased early advances.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, August 20, 2025

The benchmark climbed as much as 23 points from its 6,288.28 opening to breach a milestone level before encountering heavy selling in holding firms, financials, and mining and oil stocks.

The losses were cushioned by International Container Terminal Services Inc. (ICTSI), which surged 3.12 percent to ₱489.80, adding ₱14.80 on ₱822 million worth of trades.

ICTSI’s strength lifted the services index by 1.65 percent, making it the day’s most active issue.

SM Investments rose to an intraday high of ₱795 but closed down ₱14 at ₱781. Gaming stock DigiPlus also faltered, dropping 5.50 percent or ₱1.65 to ₱28.35 after hitting a session peak of ₱30.50.

Sectoral indices ended mixed: financials slipped 0.17 percent, holding firms fell 1.57 percent, and mining and oil retreated 1.64 percent, while industrials and property gained 0.03 percent and 0.53 percent, respectively.

Trading remained subdued with value turnover at ₱5.76 billion.

Market breadth was bearish, with losers outpacing gainers 110 to 86, while 49 issues were unchanged, including SM Prime, RFM, Abacore, Topline, Filinvest Land, Citicore REIT, Megaworld, PSE, Alternergy, D&L Industries, and Ginebra.

There was net foreign buying of ₱161 million, with inflows of ₱2.753 billion against outflows of ₱2.591 billion.

Notable gainers included RCBC, SPNEC, PNB, Agrinurture, Petron, ACEN, Converge, Jollibee Foods, Megawide, Universal Robina, PLDT, Belle Corp., Puregold, Dito CME, Robinsons Retail, Philex Mining, LT Group, Ayala Land, MREIT, Filinvest REIT, and Emperador.

Among the day’s losers were BDO Unibank, Bank of the Philippine Islands, Aboitiz Power, Security Bank, Century Pacific Food, Monde Nissin, Vitarich, Ayala Corp., JG Summit, GT Capital, Vista Land, San Miguel, DoubleDragon, GMA-7, Globe Telecom, Bloomberry, Apex Mining, Nickel Asia, and OceanaGold.