PSE Index Slightly Down

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today posted a marginal decline with the lack of concrete economic news to propel forward after briefly hitting a new milestone level, only to go back to 6,479.83 points, a loss of 8.88 points or 0.14 percent.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, April 11, 2023

News about the decline in the inflation rate was not met with positive feedback as the core inflation rate was up while the possible move of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas remained fuzzy among economists.

The sense of the market though is that there will be an interest rate hike of 25 basis points. This continued uncertainty saw investors immediately cashing in their gains as the index climbed to 6,506.59 points resulting in a low of 6,473.95 points.

Market bellwether SM Investments opened at P896, unchanged from last week, then rose to a high of P903 before climbing down to P880.50, before finally closing at P899, up by P3 on trades of P379 million, the third most active stock.

BDO Unibank emerged as the most active stock on trades of P529 million as it closed 4.67 percent higher to P130, a gain of P5.80 while SM Prime was the second most active stock with P410 million in trades as it closed 50 centavos lower to P33.

Financials and mining and oil rose respectively by 1.30 percent and 0.27 percent while holding firms lost 0.17 percent, industrials by 0.15 percent, services by 1.004 percent and property by 1.17 percent.

Total value turnover was P700 million below average at P5.3 billion with 61 gainers, 106 losers, and 63 shares unchanged.

Among the losers were JG Summit which reported another big loss from its petrochemical business, closing 3.35 percent lower to P49, a decline of P1.70, Jollibee Foods, down P6.80 or 3.05 percent to P216.20, Ayala Land, down 40 centavos to P27.30, PLDT, down P30 or 2.43 percent to P1,251, Ayala Corp, down P3 to P647, GT Capital, down a peso to P500, Globe Telecom, down P44 to P1,792, Union Bank, down 5 centavos to P85, and ACEN Corp, down 3.53 percent to P6.02, a loss of 22 centavos.

Among the gainers were Meralco up by P6 to P316, Monde Nissin up 13 centavos to P9.35, Aboitiz Equity, up by 60 centavos to P52.20, Metrobank, up by 75 centavos to P58.30, and Universal Robina, up by a peso to P142. ICTSI was unchanged at P210.

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