Local stocks ended a hairline higher on Monday, aided by month-end window-dressing activities while investors mulled the impact of recent US immigration restrictions.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 3.04 points or 0.04 percent to close at 7,336.71 on selective buying of stocks.
“Philippine markets closed flat as US stocks eroded a bit on Friday, even as overall the market’s recent upward bias was viewed as intact, and major indexes ended higher for the week,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.
Meanwhile, he noted that Asian shares suffered a worse fate, falling from a four-month high on concern about rising global trade and geopolitical risks after U.S. President Donald Trump imposed a travel ban on people from seven predominantly Muslim nations. Oil futures fell on Friday, pulling back from the nearly three-week high.
“Furthermore, the local market was artificially boosted due to the lack of the trading participants, and early window dressing for the end of the first month of 2017,” he said.
Many markets in the region were on closed due to the Lunar New Year holiday.
At the local market, the day’s gain was led by the cyclical financial and property sectors.
On the other hand, the industrial, holding firm, services and mining/oil counters were all down.
Value turnover was thin at P4 billion.
Despite the PSEi’s slight gain, market breadth was negative as there were 94 decliners that outnumbered advancers while 44 stocks were unchanged.
The PSEi was led higher by Metrobank and Ayala Corp. which both advanced by over 2 percent while Ayala Land and PLDT both gained over 1 percent.
BDO Unibank and Semirara also moved higher.
On the other hand, Metro Pacific fell by 2.21 percent while URC and AGI both declined by over 1 percent.
ICTSI, SM Investments and JG Summit also slipped.
Outside the PSEi, notable decliners included A. Brown (-0.79 percent) and Primex (-1.42 percent).