PH market stays in bear territory

The local stock barometer hardly bounced on Wednesday, remaining in “bear” territory following a steep decline in the last six days.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered a modest 2.34 points, or 0.04 percent, to close at 5,888.74. Across the region, trading was mostly sluggish as investors expect the US Federal Reserve to soon scale back its aggressive monetary stimulus.

Jonathan Ravelas, chief strategist at Banco de Oro Unibank, said the day’s movement was but a technical bounce following previous days’ freefall.

The main stock index has now given up most of its gains for the year, having fallen by about 20 percent from the peak level of about 7,400. The index is only slightly ahead of its end-2012 closing level of 5,812.73.

Trading sentiment was mixed, with the industrial, holding firms, services and mining/oil counters modestly firming up.

On the other hand, the financial (-0.57 percent) and property (-1.46 percent) counters tumbled on prospects of global interest rates bottoming out with the US Fed’s tapering of liquidity-inducing, bond-buying operations.

Despite the slight increase in the main index, market breadth was negative with 96 decliners overwhelming 54 advancers.

Value turnover was heavy at P78.48 billion, bloated by a P72-billion block transaction that consummated JG Summit’s buyout of the San Miguel group’s 27-percent stake in Meralco.

The stocks that aided the PSEi’s rise the most were AEV (+4.51 percent) and Jollibee (+3.58 percent) while EDC (+2.29 percent) and JG Summit (+1.3 percent) also contributed to the day’s gains. MWC, URC, PLDT, Globe, Petron and ICTSI also firmed up.

On the other hand, the day’s biggest PSEi decliner was Bloomberry (-3.85 percent) while AGI, ALI and LTG all slipped by more than 2 percent. Metrobank, RLC, MPI and Megaworld fell by over 1 percent.—Doris C. Dumlao