PH stock market misses regional rebound

THE LOCAL stock market underperformed regional stock markets on Monday as investors priced in the latest stream of local corporate earnings while remaining anxious ahead of the US presidential elections.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index lost 30.18 points or 0.42 percent to close at 7,197.19 – missing a regional rebound brought about by news that the FBI had cleared Democrat Hillary Clinton of any crime arising from the use of private server.

The index was weighed down by the financial, industrial, holding firm and services counters while the mining/oil and property counters both firmed up by over 1 percent.

Value turnover was thin at P6.68 billion. There were just as many advancers as decliners in the market (92 each).

Foreign investors were net sellers amounting to P744 million for the day.

The PSEi was weighed down most by Globe Telecom, which fell by 5.2 percent after announcing a 7.5-percent decline in nine-month profit. COL Financial head of research April Lee Tan said profits disappointed “on higher than expected depreciation and interest expenses.”

Metrobank, Jollibee, BPI and GTCAP all slipped by over 1 percent while AC, MPI, Security Bank, URC and PLDT all faltered.

On the other hand, ALI (+1.44 percent) and SM Prime (+1.35 percent) both bucked the day’s downturn after both reporting a double-digit rise in nine-month net profit.

Notable gainers outside the PSEi included Shell PH (+5.06 percent) and Global Ferronickel (+8.33 percent).

“We expect the PSEi to carry a lot of volatility this week, with trend bias still on the bearish side,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

In case of a sustained rally scenario, Limlingan sees the PSEi’s maximum upside at the 200-day moving average of 7,404. On the other hand, he said the PSEi could extend its losses down to 7,090.

“With all these in consideration, any aggressive buying is discouraged as the index is likely to correct more rather than recover at least for the next one to two weeks. For this week we are not particularly bullish on any issues but those trading near/at oversold conditions are candidates for short-term trading,” he said.

Citigroup said regional markets were “understandably transfixed by every latest development in the US Presidential race and by every swing in the opinion polls.”

“It is hard to focus anything other than the US presidential election this week. The constant flow of new developments and the oscillating opinion polls have pre-occupied investors and market commentators for some time now,” it said.