PSE Sheds Part Of Gains

The Philippine Stock Exchange index today shed part of its hefty gains yesterday but was saved by the rise in the financial and mining and oil sub-indices to close at 7,061.49 points, down by 80.93 points or 1.13 percent.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, April 21, 2022

Market bellwether SM Investments shot up at the opening but went down on a sell-down much like the way the market moved briefly flirting with an upsurge only to close lower as investors took in profits.

SM opened at P880 and then added another P5 for its highest price point before going down to -P862 and closing at P865, down by P12.

The index had opened a bit higher from its Wednesday close and surged to 7,156.85 points until profit-taking took its toll. Only the rise in the financials and mining and oil saved the day for the market as the two rose by 0.99 percent and 2.01 percent, respectively.

Ayala Land and SM Prime both took hits, closing lower at P35, down by 60 centavos for the former, and P37, down by P1.20, resulting in the property sub-index posting the biggest loss at 2.16 percent.

The other declines were in industrials, down by 1.13 percent, holding firms down by %1.06 percent, and services by 1.50 percent.

Bank of PI emerged as the most active stock with trades of P496 million as its rose by 20 centavos to P100 on its disclosure of a sharp rise in its first-quarter income by almost 60 percent to P8 billion.

BDO Unibank also rose by P2.50 to P135 with a second-best trade of P423 million. Value turnover amounted to P6.04 million with 83 gainers, 91 losers, and 61 shares unchanged.

PLDT and Globe posted losses of P23 to P1,891 and P22 to P2,514 while Converge turned in a gain of 55 centavos to P30.55. Nickel Asia posted a gain of 23 centavos to P8.42 while Semirara went up by 70 centavos to P31.

Metro Pacific also declined by 4 centavos to P3.84 while Manila Water also rose by 16 centavos to P19.86.

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