Foreign buying lifts local stocks
The local stock barometer climbed to the 7,300 level on Friday as local equities started attracting back foreign inflows.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 71.8 points, or 0.99 percent to close at 7,340.18 even as regional markets were lackluster due to the Thanksgiving holiday in the United States.
Value turnover for the day was heavy at P14.77 billion, boosted by a P9.04-billion block transaction of Gokongwei family-led RRHI shares related to its acquisition of grocery chain operator Rustan’s Supercenter.
The local stock market has seen net foreign buying in the last three days. With global oil prices easing and the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas taking stronger action to curb inflation, investor confidence is improving, stock analysts said.
Local stockbrokerage Papa Securities said this could be a sign that foreign funds are finally indeed coming back “as we haven’t seen an entire net foreign buying week since late August.”
All counters headed higher, led by the property subindex, which advanced by 2.36 percent.
The financial counter and mining/oil counters both gained nearly 2 percent, while the industrial, holding firm and services counters all increased.
Net foreign buying for the day amounted to P9.48 billion.
There were 108 advancers that edged out 74 decliners, while 46 stocks were unchanged.
Security Bank was among the day’s most favored PSEi stocks, gaining 5.03 percent.
Ayala Land, the day’s most actively-traded company, jumped by 3.75 percent while sister-bank BPI gained 3.56 percent.
SM Prime, AGI, Globe Telecom and Puregold all added more than 1 percent.
Metrobank, BDO, Ayala Corp. and Meralco also firmed up.
One notable gainer outside the PSEi was integrated gaming resort operator Bloomberry Resorts, which rose by 5.11 percent.
On the other hand, shares of SM Investments, GT Capital and Jollibee slipped.
Davao-based businessman Dennis Uy-affiliated ISM Communications and PXP Energy slipped by 2.06 percent and 1.35 percent, respectively.
