SMC, 4 others join index

Conglomerate San Miguel Corp. (SMC) will be among the five companies set to join the country’s blue chip index by September, the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) announced this week.

Based on its latest review covering trading activity from July of last year to June 2011, the PSE said the five new companies that will become part of the PSE Index (PSEi) are Belle Corp., Cebu Air Inc., San Miguel Corp. (SMC), Semirara Mining Corp. and SM Development Corp. (SMDC).

These companies will replace ABS-CBN Corp., Filinvest Land Inc., First Philippine Holdings Corp., Lepanto Consolidated Mining Co. and Security Bank Corp.

The PSEi consists of the country’s 30 most traded, most liquid and well-capitalized listed firms.

“With the revisions in calculating our index, we hope to boost liquidity, which is one of the stock market’s biggest challenges,” PSE president and CEO Hans Sicat said. “The changes reflect our intention to adopt global best practices.”

The PSE said the change in the composition of the 30-company PSEi aims to boost liquidity by keeping the country’s most traded firms on the index.

The PSE said it had also changed its criteria for companies that can join the index. These include a higher public float requirement of 12 percent from the previous 10 percent, and improved measurements in determining liquidity and market capitalization.

On Thursday, SMC was among the market’s most traded companies. The company’s share price closed flat at P124 apiece.

This followed news on the company’s plans to mount an initial public offering (IPO) for its power unit, SMC Global Power Holdings Corp.

The company plans to sell P35.5 billion worth of the power company’s shares, making it one of the largest IPOs in the country’s history.

SMC was earlier removed from the main index after its public float fell below the 10 percent required by the PSE.