PSE Index Soars, Then Drops To Close At Lowest Price Point

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index soared to a new milestone level in the early hours of trading only to decline as the minutes ticked by, closing at its lowest price point.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, July 22, 2024

It was still within its previous level at 6,712.05 points, though, down by 79.64 points or 1.17 percent as investors cashed in their gains.

Opening just a tad higher from its Friday close, the index surged to 6,832.66 points as blue chips posted gains, with market bellwether SM Investments hitting a high of P928 before crashing to P904, its lowest price point, down by P7.

Meanwhile, BDO Unibank, the most active stock, went as high as P150.80 before closing 60 centavos down at P148.20, with trades totaling P1.104 billion.

The property and mining and oil sub-indices were the ones that posted gains, with the former rising on net foreign buying of more than P1 billion as it rose by 0.66 percent, while mining and oil gained a much lower 0.24 percent.

Financials lost 0.49 percent, industrials by 2.00 percent, holding firms by 1.11 percent, and services were down by 2.61 percent.

Value turnover amounted to P6.233 billion, with foreign trades amounting to P5.8 billion. Foreign buying amounted to P3.411 billion, while foreign selling hit P2.397 billion, resulting in net foreign buying of P1.013 billion.

There were 72 gainers, 107 losers, and 60 shares unchanged.

Among the losers were ICTSI, Digiplus, Ayala Corp, Metrobank, Security Bank, Union Bank, ACEN Corp., Megaworld, SPNEC, Aboitiz Power, First Gen, Meralco, Semirara Mining, Emperador, and Figaro Coffee.

MRC Allied, Nickel Asia, OceanaGold, Globe Telecom, PLDT, Ginebra, Monde Nissin, Universal Robina, GT Capital, JG Summit, Aboitiz Equity, Abacore, Alliance Global, AREIT, Phil. Seven, and Robinsons Retail also ended the day in the red.

The gainers were Bank of the Philippine Islands, Ayala Land, SM Prime, China Bank, Manila Water, Apex Mining, Atlas Mining, Philex Mining, Philodrill, Oriental Petroleum, Dito CME, Belle Corp., CEMEX Holdings, GeoGrace, PXP Energy, and Cemex Holdings.

Those unchanged were Pilipinas Shell, Robinsons Land, PAL, Puregold, D&L Industries, DoubleDragon, Wilcon Depot, and Haus Talk.