PSE Index Up On Bargain Hunting

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today hurtled past its resistance level as bargain hunters pushed share prices higher as the trading progressed to close with a hefty gain of 152.33 points or 2.51 percent to 6.217.56 points.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, June 25, 2022

Investors nudged share prices higher on bargain hunting after three days of declines that saw blue chips post increases of from 2.78 percent to 4.68 percent as companies reported fresh hikes in their earnings plus the higher income streams for business process outsourcing and a research report that predicted higher earnings for Philippine companies even with the lower peso exchange rate vis-a-vis the dollar.,

Market bellwether SM Investments, which Thursday bucked the decline in share prices, went up by another P32 or 4.16 percent to P801.50 although it opened lower at P740. The market showed bearish sentiments in the early going with SM going down after opening at P794 but it also scoured the bottom before going up at the close.

Value turnover remained lower by 25 percent to P4.52 billion with gainers ahead of losers, 112 to 62 with 47 shares unchanged. Only the mining and oil sub-index posted a loss as the property surged by 3.81 percent as top-traded Ayala Land went up by 4.68 percent or P1.20 to P26.85 on trades of P334 million. SM Prime also went up by P1.35 to P36.35 on trades of P 223 million.

Holding firms gained 3.34 percent, financials by 2.004 percent, industrials by 0.47 percent and services by 1.23 percent with ICTSI going up by 2.78 percent. Converge lost 20 centavos to P18.50, Meralco down by P13 to P357, the two listed issues that posted declines among the Top 20 most active stocks.

BDO Unibank was up by P1.30 to P117.80, Bank of PI by P1.50 to P88, PLDT up by P3 to P1,700, Emperador by 30 centavos to P19.70, Ayala Corp up by P24 to P625, Megaworld by 3 centavos to P2.20, Jollibee by P7 to P200, Universal Robina by 30 centavos to P95.30, Globe by P70 to P2,150, Metrobank by P2.20 to P49.95, Monde by 4 centavos to P12.84, DM Consunji by 24 centavos to P8.59, and JG summit by 85 centavos to P48.75.

The index surge today benefitted from the research note from Credit Suisse which upgraded Philippine stocks to overweight meaning that more funds should be placed in local stocks due to the perceived economic resilience even with the lower value of the peso against the dollar and the huge debts of about P13 trillion.

The reason advanced was the incoming administration is seen to have technocrats at the helm who would be able to pilot the country to better economic prospects ahead even with the tailwinds brought by the Ukraine crisis.

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