PSEi recovers slightly

The local stock barometer rebounded slightly on Friday after the previous day’s selldown arising from a weaker-than-expected third-quarter local economic growth report.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) recovered 29.04 points or 0.4 percent to close at 7,294.38 on hopes about a local stimulus after it was reported Thursday that third-quarter gross domestic product (GDP) growth had come in at only 5.3 percent or much slower than the consensus forecast of 6.5 percent.

The property counter remained in the red while all the rest managed to eke out modest gains.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.67 billion. There were 106 advancers and 76 decliners while 49 stocks were unchanged.

The day’s rebound was led by EDC, which rose by 3.21 percent from the previous day’s slump. DMCI also gained 2.13 percent.

Ayala Corp., the day’s most actively traded stock, was up 1 percent alongside Metrobank and URC, which also rose more than 1 percent.

SM Prime, Megaworld, SMIC, Globe and Semirara also contributed modest gains.

Among the notable gainers outside of non-PSEi stocks were CMT (+13.7 percent) and newly listed SSI (+4.07 percent). CMT had executed a backdoor-listing by a mining group.

On the other hand, Banco de Oro and AGI tempered the day’s gains as both declined more than 1 percent in share value. ALI and JG Summit also slipped.

Local stockbrokerage DA Market Securities said the index remained under the 7,413 major resistance and all-time high. “Amid weak GDP results and the spate of market placements, the market may remain sideways or consolidate with supports at 7,300 and 7,200,” the brokerage said.

If the “formidable” support at 7,200 would hold, DA Market Securities said this would confirm a “resilient” market. However, if broken, it said this would lead to a retest of 7,000. Doris C. Dumlao