PSEi recovers slightly

The local stock barometer firmed up Friday, tracking a regional rebound seen after the week’s bloodbath arising from the US Federal Reserve’s anticipated tapering of liquidity measures.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index recovered 24.48 points or 0.4 percent to close at 6,161.21. For the two-day trading week, the index lost 5.6 percent due to Thursday’s massive selldown.

The rebound Friday was led solely by the holding firm counter (+1.27 percent) as other counters still ended in negative territory.

“For every drop, especially since Thursday’s fall was the second biggest drop (for the year), it’s normal to have a rebound after such a selloff,” said AB Capital Securities head of research Jose Vistan. “Right now, if you look at the primary trend, the uptrend is still intact but the market may still retest the 6,100 (support).”

As the Philippines is in a relatively better macroeconomic fundamental position compared to other emerging markets in the region, Vistan said the local market should benefit from such distinction.

Value turnover at the local market amounted to P8.5 billion. Despite the slight recovery in the main index, there were still more decliners (83) than advancers (70).

The PSEi stocks that led the day’s rebound were AEV (+5.39 percent), AP (+4.46 percent), DMCI (+3.04 percent), MPI (+2.73 percent), Bloomberry (+2.41 percent), MWC (+1.27 percent) and SM Prime (+1.25 percent).

On the other hand, the day’s main losers were Jollibee (-3.39 percent), Petron (-2.82 percent), and RLC (-2.38 percent) while SMC, ALI, Metrobank and Philex also slipped by over 1 percent.

Thursday’s bloodbath was attributed to pent-up selling pressure arising from the market’s unexpected three-day shutdown during which regional emerging markets were bludgeoned by capital outflows.

Local financial markets were closed due to massive flooding in Metro Manila last Monday and Tuesday while Wednesday was a non-working holiday (Ninoy Aquino day). Doris C. Dumlao