PSE Index Up On Bargain-Hunting

Bargain hunters pushed up the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index closing at its high point as investors picked share prices that have declined in last week’s huge sell-down to close 78.95 points or 1.16 percent higher at 6,913.87 points.

All the sub-indices were in green territory with holding firms up the biggest with a 1.62 percent gain, followed by mining and oil, with 1.39 percent, and services, by 1.34 percent. The financials were up by 0.66 percent, industrials by 0.79 percent and property, by 0.96 percent.

Market bellwether SM Investments gained P19 to P1,019 as it topped foreign buying with P57 million while Ayala Corp went up by P16 to P800, although Universal Robina lost a peso to P143 as value turnover remained below average at P4.835 million with the number of gainers lower than losers at 94 against 106 with 54 shares unchanged.

Emerging as the most active stock was Ayala Energy which went up by 1.84 percent or 16 centavos higher to P8.86, even with foreign selling of P30 million with trades of P337 million, while Converge and Ayala Land followed with hefty gains respectively of 2.86 percent to P23.25 and 2.64 percent higher to P36.95.

Net foreign selling amounted to P202 million on foreign buying of P1.634 billion and foreign selling of P1.837 billion while value turnover was below average at P4.835 billion indicating the uncertainty over the COVID-19 response with the new variants that have hit hard other nations.

Among the gainers were Globe, which rose by P18 to P1,983, while PLDT declined by P10 to P1,290. Dito CME also lost 23 centavos to P8.63, while Security Bank, which had foreign selling of P34 million, was up by P1.90 to P118.10.

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