PSE MARGINALLY DOWN

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) today declined marginally with the index losing just 3.10 points, or 0.05 percent to 5,943.52 points in a volatile trade that saw blue chips in a roller-coaster ride in a day that saw locals participating in the stock market with the ghost month already behind.

Losers outnumbered gainers, 106-78 with 58 shares unchanged with value transactions of P6.012 billion as the net foreign selling ballooned to P1.168 billion on foreign buying of P3.096 billion and foreign selling of P4.26 billion. Market punters said that there is a glimmer of hope in the trading performance today as the PSE index almost posted an increase were it not for the lack of time in the now-abbreviated trading due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Foreign selling activity hit much of the stocks with 12 blue chips coming under the buy-and-sell mode of investors. The stocks that had net foreign selling were Jollibee Foods with P134 million, PLDT, P114 million, SM Prime P91 million, BDO Unibank, P86 million; Universal Robina, P68 million, Metro Pacific, P33 million; PNB, P30 million; Globe Telecom, 27 million; Bank of PI, 26 million; Ayala Land, P24 million, GT Corp., 19 milion and Puregold, P18 million.

The optimistic assessment on the trajectory of the stock market for tomorrow arose from the performance of market bellwether SM Investments and BDO Unibank, which was the most active stock with its price unchanged, at P88 on value turnover of P288 million. SM Investments also declined slightly, down just P5 to P905 with net foreign buying of P2 million out of its total trade of P201 million. SM opened at its Wednesday close, went to a high of P915 and hit a low of P893 before recovering .

Puregold's performance also showed the positive vibes that market players saw as it bucked the net foreign selling of P18 milion to close at P49.15, higher by P1.45. Ayala REIT also posted an increase of 10 centavos to close at P25.80 while SM Prime, even with foreign selling of P91 million, was also unchanged at P28.50. URC, even with net foreign selling, was also unchanged at P137.

Jollibee Foods lost P3.10 to close at P130.20 while the other losing blue chips include Metrobank, down 25 centavos to P35.50, PLDT, down P5. to P1,390, and Ayala Land, down 5 centavos to P31.40.

Market players said that absent any negative news, the stock market may be see a gain tomorrow as the local market players get back to their investing game in the PSE.  

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