PSE Index Up A Bit

The Philippine Stock Exchange index today went on a roller-coaster ride, flirting with a new milestone level and then cascading to a new low on profit-taking to close just a tad higher from Thursday's close at 6,361.82 points, up by just 9.50 points or 0.15 percent.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, July 8, 2022

Opening at a low of 6,366.68 points, the index mustered strength on buying sprees to within 2 points to the 6,500 level until investors cashed in their gains resulting in the index losing steam and hitting a low of 6,358.44 points before nosing up at the close on buy-backs.

Value turnover was at an average of P6.603 billion with 92 gainers and 72 losers with 62 unchanged as the market shrugged off the declining value of the peso vis-a-vis the dollar and shifted their focus on the optimistic take on the economy as economic managers unveiled their program to tow the country to upper-middle-income status and low poverty incidence.

Market bellwether SM Investments mirrored the up-and-down cycle in the trading as it opened at P844, reached a high of P859.50, and then scoured the depths at P823.50 before closing at P839, down by P5.

Similarly top-traded Ayala Land, with a hefty turnover of P1.02 billion, went to a high of P26.70, up a peso from its opening then just as suddenly hit a low of P25.70 before closing at P25.90, down by 25 centavos.

Property giant SM Prime hit a high of P38.80 and a low of P36.90 before closing at P36.90, down by 35 centavos on trades of P522 million.

BDO Unibank was the second most traded stock at P553 million but it closed P2.50 higher at P118.80 as it shepherded the financial subindex to a gain of 1.01 percent as Bank of PI lost 30 centavos to P87. Metrobank, however, was up by 95 centavos to P49.70.

Monde, whose products were recalled in several countries, went on a roller coaster ride, opening at P13, and hitting a high and low respectively of P13.46 and P12.88 before closing at P13.04, down by 32 centavos.

Converge was up by 60 centavos to P21.80, PLDT down by P3 to P1,690 and Globe was up by P54 to P2,294. Jollibee was up by a hefty 5.85 percent to P217, up by P12.

Holding firms and property lost 0.33 percent and 0.89 percent while the other gainers were industrials, up by 1.01 percent, services by 0.41 percent, and mining and oil by 0.98 percent.

Meralco was unchanged at P350 while Ayala Corp declined by P11 to P643, and JG Summit went down by 70 centavos to P49.30.

WEEKLY FEATURE : MVP Group Keeps Lights On During Pandemic