Local stock index hits new high but ends lower
MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index closed slightly lower after hitting a new intra-day high of 5,329.76 on Friday as some investors decided to pocket gains from the recent run-up.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index closed lower by 2.86 points or 0.05 percent at 5,297.55 in mixed trade on Friday. For the week, it racked up 128.5 points or 2.5 percent due to the surge to new highs in the last two days.
Theresa Marcial-Javier, senior vice president and head of asset management and trust group at Bank of the Philippine Islands, said market sentiment was upbeat on first-quarter corporate earnings. “That’s the catalyst that we’re seeing,” she said, explaining the surge to new highs in the last three days.
Marcial-Javier said BPI asset management was expecting PSEi to hit 5,500 to 5,800 this year. She said the appetite was good especially for conglomerates as these were seen as a proxy for the whole domestic economy, which in turn was doing very well.
The local stock market is now valued at about 17 times projected earnings for 2012, similar to the price multiple seen during the last stock market bull run in 2007.
Marcial-Javier said she was not worried about foreign flows to emerging markets like the Philippines stopping anytime soon. “In general, allocation to emerging markets (by global fund managers) is still small,” she said.
On Friday, the main index was weighed down by the financial, holding firms and mining/oil counters while the industrial, services and property counters firmed up.
Turnover amounted to P8.99 billion. There were 63 advancers against 107 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.
Among the index stocks that declined were PLDT, AC, URC, Metrobank, Philex, MPI and DMCI. Other stocks that declined in heavy volume were Security Bank, Philex Petroleum and NiHao.
On the other hand, the PSEi’s decline was tempered by the gains of Megaworld, ICTSI, ALI, RLC, AP, BDO and SM Prime. Shares of Bloomberry and GT Capital also firmed up in heavy volume.
