PSEi holds fort ahead of influential Fed meeting

The stock barometer continued to climb on Tuesday on selective buying of large cap stocks ahead of a much-awaited US Federal Reserve meeting.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 28.66 points or 0.4 percent to close at 7,261.75, rising for the second session.

“With no economic data Monday, investors were instead focusing on the two-day Federal Open Market Committee meeting that kicks off Tuesday,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

Limlingan noted that overnight, US stocks had closed marginally higher after switching between small gains and losses on Monday as investors refrained from making sizeable bets ahead of a Federal Reserve meeting that was widely expected to deliver an interest rate increase.

At the local market, the day’s gains were led by the financial, industrial, holding firm and services counters.

On the other hand, the mining/oil counter was down by 2.77 percent amid the challenging regulatory environment brought about by the government’s antimining bias.

Despite the PSEi’s slight gain, market breadth was negative. There were 105 decliners against 86 advancers, while 48 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by ICTSI, which surged by 5.04 percent and was the day’s most actively traded stock.  ICTSI announced on Tuesday the opening of Puerto Aguadulce, a joint venture terminal in Port of Buenaventura, Colombia. The first phase of the $550-million world class multi-use container and bulk handling facility can handle mega container vessels with capacities of up to 18,000 TEUs (twenty-foot equivalent units).

On Monday, ICTSI also reported a 207-percent surge in net income to $180 million.

Investors also picked up shares of URC that rose by 2.81 percent, while new PSEi member Puregold gained over 1 percent along with SM Investments and Metrobank.

Metro Pacific, BDO Unibank and Megaworld also firmed up.

SM Prime and DMCI both fell by over 1 percent while Ayala Corp., PLDT, GT Capital and Security Bank also slipped.

One notable decliner outside the PSEi was Bloomberry, which fell by 4.14 percent.  Cement-maker Cemex tumbled by 1.41 percent.