Last-minute buying lifts stocks

The local stock barometer rebounded to the 7,900 level on Monday, tracking upbeat regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 142.37 points or 1.83 percent to close at 7,938.35.

Christopher Mangun, head of research at AAA Equities, said Asian shares edged higher after The People’s Bank of China said it was planning to revamp its loan prime rate in favor of lowering borrowing costs to help support businesses that were suffering from the trade war with the US.

At the local market, he noted that the market was flat until last-minute buying that resulted in a strong finish. However, he noted that foreign fund flows were negative again with net foreign selling for the day of P182 million.

“Market sentiment for equities remains very cautious. The relief that we saw may be temporary. Foreign outflows slowed down today compared to the last 10 days of trading,” Mangun said.

“Investors may have shown some optimism as we had the first IPO (initial public offering) for the year, ending the day up more than 40 percent. The upside is still extremely limited until we see investors gain more confidence in our market,” he added.

All counters went up but the market was buoyed most by the financial, industrial and mining/oil counters, which all surged by more than 2 percent.

The holding firm and services counters both added over 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P7.02 billion.

There were 113 advancers that edged out 72 decliners, while 62 stocks were unchanged.

Metro Pacific and Gokongwei-led firms URC and JG Summit led the day’s rebound, having all racked up more than 6 percent.

BDO rallied by 3.38 percent whole ICTSI added 2.33 percent.

SM Prime, Ayala Corp., PLDT, BPI, AGI and GT Capital all rose by over 1 percent.

Ayala Land, the day’s most actively traded company, firmed up by 0.3 percent.

Outside of the PSEi, one notable gainer was stock debutant KPPI, which surged by 41.99 percent on speculation of a potential backdoor-listing by local lodging chain SOGO.

On the other hand, Jollibee fell by 1.27 percent while SM Investments and Globe Telecom both slipped.