PSEi recovers, reverses rough start

The local stock barometer stabilized Thursday, reversing a rough start, on selective buying of large-cap stocks.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) inched up by 5.87 points or 0.09 percent to close at 6,772.44. Trading for the day, however, was mostly focused on second- and third-liner stocks.

The holding firm, services and property counters supported the market’s modest rise, making up for the slack in financial, industrial and mining/oil counters.

Energy Development Corp. (+1.63 percent) was one notable gainer among PSEi stocks.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.16 billion. There were 96 advancers that beat 87 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged. Most of the stocks that were actively traded for the day were not PSEi stocks.

Outside of the PSEi, investors snapped up shares of Sinophil (+49.38 percent), Da Vinci (+41.99 percent) and LOTO (+21.73 percent).

Shares of Sinophil have risen sharply in the last few days as the market was pricing in the infusion of gaming assets—particularly ownership of half of the gaming revenues of City of Dreams Manila—into the company. Da Vinci is the subject of further backdoor-listing speculation while LOTO is set to boost trading liquidity while raising fresh funds from the sale of treasury shares.

Travellers (+3.47 percent) and Puregold (+2.47 percent) also caught the market’s fancy alongside RRHI and Vista Land which both gained by over 1 percent. Doris C. Dumlao