Local investors take up the slack as PSEi moves slightly up

The stock barometer firmed up slightly on Friday as local investors made up for the slack in foreign risk appetite.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 5.7 points, or 0.07 percent, to close at 7,824.59, shored up by last-minute buying.

The day’s closing showed the 7,700-mark appeared to be a strong support, Eagle Equities president Joseph Roxas said.

“There’s still some concern on the effect of the US Senate resolution [supporting human rights] to Hong Kong and its impact on the US-China trade talks,” Roxas said.

At the same time, he said foreign investors were still selling as two of the companies taken out of the MSCI index—AGI and DMCI—were both PSEi stocks, thereby causing a drag on the stock barometer.

The local market was led higher by the mining/oil counter, which rose by 2.39 percent.

The industrial, holding firm and services counters also firmed up.

On the other hand, the financial and property counters slipped.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P5.48 billion. Foreigners were net sellers to the tune of P642.36 million.

There were 90 advancers versus 88 decliners, while 58 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was shored up by RLC, which gained 3.3 percent, as well as Metrobank and GT Capital, which both rose by over 2 percent.

Ayala Corp., SM Prime, JG Summit, PLDT and URC all added over 1 percent.

Bloomberry and Globe also slightly gained.

On the other hand, DMCI fell by 2.24 percent while Ayala Land, BDO and Jollibee all slipped by over 1 percent.

BPI, ICTSI, SM Investments, AGI and Puregold also declined.