PSE UP ON BARGAIN HUNTING

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today went up by 16.75 points or 0.26 percent to 6,539.96 points on bargain hunting that included the foreign investors who continued to be net sellers as the government's response on the COVID-19 remains to draw flak from the business community.

Net foreign selling stood at P592 million on foreign buying of P1.437 billion and foreign selling of P2.030 billion, but with the locals buying in.

Even listed shares that were subject of foreign sell down posted gains in a day consisting of 103 gainers and 100 losers with 46 shares unchanged, the industrials and the holding firms posting losses of 0.79 percent and 0.15 percent, respectively.

Second liner Apollo Global was the most active stock with P537 million in trades as its share price went up by P0.033 to P0.235, while Ayala Land, which had the biggest foreign selling of P185 million, managed to gain 45 centavos to P33.70 on total trades of P425 million.

BDO Unibank, which had the biggest foreign buy of P94 million rose by 90 centavos to P104.90.

Market bellwether SM Investments was unchanged at P980 while Megaworld dropped by 13 centavos to P3.35. Market darling MerryMart declined by 21 centavos to P5.16, while food giant Jollibee Foods also dropped by P3.90 to P180.

Dito CME also lost 6 centavos to P10.62, while PLDT gained P35 to P1,275.

Metrobank and Bank of PI posted losses to close respectively at 5 centavos to P44.35 and 50 centavos to P83.

Market analysts said that the business community is still at a loss with the government's COVID-19 response, which continues to remain unchecked as the lack of an informed government response, citing the sudden decision from ECQ to MECQ that caught the businessmen by surprise, preventing them from planning ahead.

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