PSEi pushes past 5,800 as market celebrates NCR’s reopening

The local stock barometer rallied to the 5,800 mark in heavy volume on Friday as investors anticipated the reopening of Metro Manila after a two-month lockdown alongside a scramble to align with the latest rebalancing of the closely tracked MSCI indices.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 268.62 points or 4.82 percent to close at 5,838.84 and outperformed its neighbors as foreign funds flowed into the market.

For the week, the PSEi rose by a total of 299.65 points or 5.41 percent.

Ron Acoba, chief investment strategist at equities research provider Trading Edge Consultancy, said much of the day’s gain was achieved toward the market’s closing.

The market had reacted to Metro Manila’s shift to a general community quarantine beginning June 1. An MSCI rebalancing also lifted index heavyweight stocks like SM Investments and Ayala Corp. at runoff.

SM Investments advanced by 9.45 percent while Ayala Corp. rallied by 8.81 percent. SM’s banking arm, BDO Unibank, likewise outperformed with its 11.12-percent gain.

“Market is set to normalize and pull back to 5,600 come Monday,” Acoba said.

For index-tracking investors, it was the last day of portfolio adjustment to align with the latest MSCI rebalancing. At the same time, month-end window-dressing contributed to the demand for equities, said Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities.

The rally was led by the holding firms and financial counters, which respectively surged by 6.26 percent and 5.36 percent.

The services counter rose by 3.44 percent while the property sub-index jumped by 2.69 percent. The industrial counter added 1.67 percent.

Only the mining/oil coun­ter remained in the doldrums, declining by 1.24 percent.

Value turnover for the day was heavy at P20.39 billion. There was P955.4 million worth of net foreign buying.

There were 95 advancers that edged out 81 decliners, while 40 stocks were unchanged.

PLDT rose by 5.9 percent, while Ayala Land, Globe Telecom, ICTSI, URC, GT Capital and Meralco all added over 4 percent.

BPI, Metrobank and AEV all rose by over 3 percent, while Metro Pacific added 2.12 percent.

DMCI gained 1.03 percent while JG Summit inched up by 0.1 percent.

Investors continued to dump shares of Jollibee, which fell by 6.37 percent after its first quarter earnings report showed a reversal to a net loss for the first time in 19 years.

Security Bank fell by 2.91 percent, while Puregold, the day’s most actively traded company, slipped by 0.76 percent despite reporting a double-digit growth in profit.

Security Bank was deleted from the MSCI Global Standard index on May 29 while retailer Puregold Price Club was added.

Security Bank was in turn added to the MSCI small cap index alongside home improvement retailer AllHome and DMCI Holdings. East West Bank, MacroAsia and Mega­wide were deleted. —DORIS DUMLAO-ABADILLA