The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) managed to close in the green Monday, the last day of the semester, although stiff resistance halted any strong advance.
The PSEi closed the session up 0.03 percent, or 2.16 points, to 6,844.31 while the broader all-shares index was also up 0.06 percent, or 2.49 points, to 4,10628.
The market had risen almost 30 points in early trading although the 6,780-level proved tough to breach, said Jun Calaycay, equities analyst with Accord Capital Equities Corp.
“Except for the rising tensions in Iraq, leads were few and far between over the weekend with US and European equities practically flat in Friday’s closing trades,” Calaycay said.
“The bears eventually caught up with the bulls, wiping out all gains by the pre-close phase but failed to pull the measure under, ending the session with gains of only 2.16 points,” he added.
On Monday, subindices closed mixed with property leading declines at 0.78 percent followed by financial and industrial stocks. Mining and oil rose 0.91 percent.
A total of 5.04 billion shares valued at P8.6 billion changed hands. Most companies still closed in the red, with losers outnumbering gainers by 99 to 83 while 47 stocks were unchanged.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. led the list of most actively traded companies as it gained 0.95 percent to P2,988.
This was followed by Ayala Corp. (down 0.08 percent to P647.50), Ayala Land Inc. (down 1.13 percent to P30.50), Alsons Consolidated Resources ( down 0.45 percent to P2.21) and SM Investments Corp. (up 0.55 percent to P816).
Calaycay noted that there was still optimism moving into the second half of 2014, with the benchmark index gaining about 16.2 percent in the first semester.
“Yolanda was considered the biggest stumbling block to extending the bull market to a fifth year. Externally, geopolitical tensions, the global economic recovery and the Federal Reserve’s stimulus tapering topped the list of concerns investors minds were pre-occupied with,” he said. Miguel R. Camus