PSEi boosted by window-dressing

The local stock barometer firmed up on Tuesday, aided by strong regional markets and first-half window-dressing activities.

Resuming trade after the long weekend break, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 62.2 points or 0.8 percent to close at 7,876.37, mostly supported by domestic investors’ selective buying of large-cap and second-liner stocks.

On the other hand, foreign investors were net sellers in the market, resulting in net outflows of P718.52 million.

“Philippine markets started their window dressing to kick of the last trading week of the first half capitalizing on US equities surging on opening. This happened despite US shares closing mixed as a rise in the financial sectors ahead of the results from the second part of the stress test offset losses from large cap technology stocks,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

Except for the industrial counter, all sub-indices gained, led by the services counter which firmed up by 1.11 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.2 billion. Despite the PSEi’s gain, market breadth was negative as there were 103 decliners that edged out 94 advancers while 50 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by ICTSI which gained 4.53 percent while PLDT gained 2.08 percent. Ayala Land, SM Prime, BDO, Semirara and Metrobank all rose by over 1 percent.

Meralco, SM Investments, Ayala Corp. and BPI also contributed gains.

Outside of the PSEi, notable gainers included retailers MRSGI (+5.87 percent), Wilcon (+1.52 percent) and SSI (+8.06 percent). Property developer CPG also gained 3.7 percent in heavy volume.

On the other hand, URC and DMCI slipped. Other notable decliners outside the PSEi included MRP and Bloomberry which respectively declined by 4.69 percent and 5.22 percent.

Local stock brokerage AB Capital Securities said the PSEi may test immediate support level of 7,700 in the immediate term.

“A break from the support of 7,700 may likely go down further to 7,500. The market declined for the third day battered by negative sentiment locally,” the brokerage said.