SM beats Friday blues; PSEi above 7,200 anew

The stock barometer climbed back to the 7,200 level on Monday as leading conglomerate SM Investments recouped most losses from Friday’s sell-off.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 86.82 points or 1.21 percent to close at 7,233.09 on the first day of the PSEi’s rebalancing.

All counters were up, led by holding firms, which firmed up by 1.9 percent due to SM’s rebound.

SM bounced by 7.76 percent to close at P645.50. To recall, SM slid by 9.24 percent last Friday as fund managers scrambled to realign their portfolios ahead of the main index rebalancing.

Starting March 13, SM’s weight in the PSEi had been reduced by 0.51 percent along with the removal of Emperador to accommodate the inclusion of Puregold with a 1-percent weight in the index.

Apart from SM’s rebound, the upswing in the local market also reflected mostly firmer regional markets.

“After much market drama, another rate increase from the FOMC (Federal Open Market Committee) now looks like a foregone conclusion when the committee members meet later this week. This information is already being discounted into the market,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

He also noted that US non-farm payrolls increased by 235,000 in February, moderately above consensus expectations. US jobless ratio also edged down to 4.7 percent, one tenth below Fed officials’ estimates, he added.

At the local market on Monday, the mining/oil counter was also up by 1.04 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.46 billion. Domestic investors made up for the slack in foreign risk-taking.

Market breadth was neutral. Advancers equaled decliners in number, with 94 each.

Apart from SM, the PSEi was led higher by Semirara which rose by 2.44 percent while AGI, BDO, URC, Metrobank, ALI and Globe Telecom all advanced by over 1 percent.

Security Bank, SM Prime, MPI and JG Summit also contributed to the PSEi’s gains.