PSE index as of August 19, 2014, 3:39 PM. Screengrab from https://edge.pse.com.ph/index/form.do
MANILA, Philippines–The local stock barometer surged to a new high for the year on Tuesday, firming up above 7,000, on follow-through buying related to the MSCI rebalancing alongside a favorable regional backdrop.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index racked up 55.17 points or 0.79 percent to close at 7,082.75, setting a new peak for 2014. Across the region, markets were mostly higher due to the favorable US housing data and easing geopolitical tension in Ukraine.
All counters were up but the biggest gainer was the mining/oil counter, which advanced by 1.17 percent.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P13.26 billion. There were 100 advancers versus 81 decliners while 41 stocks were unchanged.
Two of the day’s most actively traded stocks were PLDT (+0.43 percent) and ALI (+1.69 percent) as index-tracking funds added shares in line with increased weights in the latest MSCI rebalancing, which will take effect after the end of this month.
GTCAP, AC, EDC and AP all rose by 2 percent while AGI rebounded by 1.41 percent. Metrobank, URC, BDO and SM Prime also contributed gains.
Petron slid by 7.24 percent to P11.78 after its retirement fund disclosed plans to sell 380 million shares at a discounted price of P11.50 per share.
Puregold continued to slip but at a modest pace (-0.15 percent) versus the freefall in the last three trading days while parent Cosco rebounded by 2.5 percent. Controlling shareholder Lucio Co has recently bought back shares of both Puregold and Cosco from the open market to support its stocks.
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