PSEi firms up

THE LOCAL stock barometer slightly firmed up at close on Wednesday while risk-taking across the region was curbed by Greek debt woes.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index recouped 9.71 points or 0.13 percent to close at 7,561.67 as the slump in prices in the last two days lured selective buying late in the session.

Across the region, sentiment was mostly sluggish as international investors awaited the outcome of discussions in Europe meant to avoid a debt default by Greece.

At the local market, sentiment was mixed. The financial , industrial and services counters led the market higher while the holding firms, mining/oil and property counters faltered.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.12 billion. Despite the PSEi’s slight rise, market breadth was negative. There were only 74 advancers versus 102 decliners while 51 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi’s gains were led by MPIC, which went up by 3.8 percent. MPIC has announced an increase in authorized capital stock to P40.05 billion from P30.05 billion, citing the need to carry out equity fund raising in a timely manner for investments such as infrastructure, utilities and healthcare sectors.

Also, MPIC is reclassifying a total of 150 million class B preferred shares with par value of P1 per share into 15 billion class A preferred shares with par value of P0.01 per share, thereby decreasing the number of class B preferred shares and correspondingly increasing the number of class A preferred shares. The purpose of the reclassification is to “broadly maintain the historical ratio of preference shares relative to each class and the common shares of the company following recent capital raising exercises, as well as to reduce the number of outstanding preferred shares that are convertible to the common shares.”

Globe, SMIC, BPI and Jollibee also supported the PSEi’s rise, all of them rising by over 1 percent. SMPH, URC, PLDT and Megaworld also contributed to the day’s gains.

On the other hand, the PSEi’s rise was tempered by the decline of GTCAP, which slipped by 2.21 percent while Metrobank and EDC both faltered by over 1 percent. AEV, AC, Emperador and ALI also contributed to the decline.

Among the notable decliners for the day were gaming firm Melco (-8.25 percent) and Puregold (-3.62 percent).