PSE Index Up A Bit

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today rose a bit, closing 54.96 points or 0.84 percent to 6,580.12 points as investors weighed the conflicting economic scenarios arising from the fallout from the Ukraine crisis and the US Fed interest rate response.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, December 9, 2022

Investors were a bit choosy concentrating their trades on a handful of blue chips that the top 10 most active stocks accounted for P3.5 billion out of P5.9 billion or about 60 percent of total trades.

Market bellwether SM Investments went up by P20 to P930 on trades of P313 million, the fourth most active, while SM Prime emerged as the most active stock with trades of P601.87 million and unchanged at P33.70.

BDO Unibank was also unchanged at p129 with trades of p558. 6 million while ictsi rose by p13 to p203 with p549 million in trades.

Ayala Land rose by 20 centavos to P29.20 to push the property sub-index up by just 0.10 percent, with mining and oil rising by 0.63 percent, services by 2.63 percent, and holding firms by 1.27 percent, overwhelming the 0.21 percent losses of financials, and 0.46 percent loss of industrials.

Value turnover amounted to p5. 9 billion with block trades involving Emperador and three others. The other five active companies were Jollibee foods down by 20 centavos to P236.80, PLDT, up by P30 to P1,730, and Universal Robina, up by P2.20 to P136.60.

Globe Telecom was down by P22 to P2,160 and ACEN Corp down 20 centavos to P7.25.

There were second liners that caught investors' attention such as Philex Mining, which gained 20 centavos to P2.94 with trades of P18 million, and Ever Gotesco, which rose by 9.8 percent to P0.28 up by P0.025 on trades of P8.78 million.

Investors are expected to remain cautious next week with the difficult economic terrain arising from the 8 percent inflation number, considered high, and the expected rise in local interest rates.

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