PSEi surges to best level this year

Philippine Stock Exchange AFP FILE PHOTO

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock barometer surged to its best closing for the year as investors continued to price in last week’s surprise Philippine sovereign credit rating upgrade while regional markets tracked a Wall Street rally.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 27.63 points or 0.4 percent to close at 6,880.44.

Value turnover was heavy at P14 billion, bloated by a P3-billion block sale on 8990 Holdings (House). Net foreign buying amounted to around P3 billion.

Despite the overall index decline, there was profit-taking across the broader market. As such, the 59 advancers were overwhelmed by 119 decliners while 51 stocks were unchanged.

Jonathan Ravelas, chief strategist at Banco de Oro Unibank, said the 7,000 mark might be tested by the end of the month.

For any sovereign upgrade story, Ravelas said the market would usually rally by 3.9 percent, which meant that the recent S&P move — which lifted the Philippine credit rating to one notch above minimum investment grade — would fuel a re-testing of the 7,000-mark.

“But what could make or break the 7,000 is the outlook for the first quarter (Philippine) GDP (gross domestic product) growth numbers,” Ravelas said.

At the start of the year, he said the market was assuming a first quarter GDP growth rate of below 6 percent. But now, he said many had upgraded forecasts to above 6 percent.

The PSEi was led higher by ALI (+1.88 percent), PLDT (+0.41 percent), URC (+2.84 percent), Megaworld (+0.43 percent), Ayala (+2.09 percent), SMPH (+0.59 percent),Bloomberry (+1.19 percent) and ICTSI (+0.91 percent)

Investors also picked up shares of DMCI, Jollibee and EDC, which all rose by over 1 percent.

On the other hand, there was profit-taking on AGI and its beverage unit Emperador.

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