PSEi rebounds to 7,700 on bargain-hunting
THE LOCAL stock barometer rebounded strongly on Thursday, retesting the 7,700 mark, as some investors hunted for bargains even as foreign investors continued to pare down their local stock holdings.
Bouncing from a rough start, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index recouped 162.41 points or 2.15 percent to close at 7,708.42.
As the PSEi touched a major support level at 7,500, it was “time to buy,” said Eagle Equities president Joseph Roxas.
“It looks like a flow back from US equities to Southeast Asian markets,” said Jose Mari Lacson, head of research at ATR Asset Management. He noted broad-based recovery among mostly large-cap stocks, implying institutional demand.
“The PSEi shrugged off a slow start despite U.S. stocks (having) closed narrowly mixed as further weakness in oil prices after a weekly inventory data showed an unexpected decline in U.S. crude-oil inventories but an increase in stockpiles of refined products,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at local stock brokerage Regina Capital Development.
Limlingan noted that stock markets had been whipsawed in recent weeks by mixed views on interest rate hikes by US Federal Reserve officials.
“Our own forecast is for next rate hike to be moved to December, as historically no decision is made prior to election,” he said.
“Most notably the PSEi was trading flat most of the session with some foreign brokers buying up stocks at the last minute on bargain hunting,” he added.
Bargain-hunting, however, was still driven by local money. There was still about P420 million in net foreign selling for the day, marking the 16th straight session of foreign outflows from the local bourse.
Except for the services counter which slipped by 1.07 percent, all other sub-indices were up. The financial, holding firm and property counters all surged by over 2 percent while the industrial counter went up by over 1 percent. The mining/oil counter was modestly up.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.04 billion. There were 110 advancers that edged out 75 decliners while 54 stocks were unchanged.
Investors picked up shares of JG Summit, AEV and BPI which all rallied by over 4 percent alongside BDO, SM Prime and SMIC which all jumped by over 3 percent.
ALI, URC, MPI, Jollibee and Megaworld all gained over 2 percent while GTCAP and Metrobank rose by over 1 percent.
New PSEi member Security Bank also firmed up along with Ayala Corp. and EDC.
On the other hand, the services index was weighed down by telcos PLDT and Globe which respectively slipped by 2.82 percent and 0.35 percent. ICTSI also fell by 0.64 percent.
