PSEi bounces to 7,200 mark

THE LOCAL stock barometer bounced to the 7,200 mark on Friday as investors hunted for bargains after the freefall in the last nine sessions.

Recovering from six-month lows as investors sifted through oversold stocks, the Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 66.46 points or 0.93 percent to close at 7,227.37 even as regional markets remained jittery over the forthcoming US elections.

For the three-day trading week, the PSEi lost a total of 177.43 points or 2.4 percent mostly due to investors’ anxiety over the tight presidential race between Democrat Hillary Clinton and Republican Donald Trump.

At the local market on Friday, all counters firmed up led by holding firms, services and mining/oil counters which all rose by over 1 percent.

Value turnover amounted to P7.73 billion. There were 135 advancers that overwhelmed 54 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Despite the PSEi rebound, risk appetite among foreign investors remained low. There was around P1 billion in net foreign selling for the day, suggesting that domestic investors drove bargain-hunting.

GT Capital, AEV and Megaworld led the PSEi higher, all advancing by over 3 percent while Metrobank, PLDT and Security Bank rose by over 2 percent.

SM Prime, JG Summit, MPI and Jollibee gained over 1 percent.

Outside of PSEi stocks, the notable gainers included Bloomberry which surged by 8.06 percent on improved prospects for the gaming industry following rekindled bilateral ties between the Philippines and China.

Newly listed oil firm Pilipinas Shell also gained 3.73 percent on its second day of trading while Manila Water rose by 3.33 percent.

Across the region, trading was muted by anxiety over the Nov. 8 US presidential elections.

“Risk shedding into the US elections is continuing. Investors believe that the Presidential race is tightening further; many are unwilling to hold large risk exposure into this binary risk event that could have quite significant impact on global macro trends. As a result, risk aversion is rising, equity markets are retreating, US Treasury yields have inched lower, and the dollar is retracing some of last month’s gains,” Citigroup said in a research note.