PH shares start Feb with a rally; index up

The local stock barometer rallied on the first trading session of the month, tracking upbeat regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index racked up 202.14 points or 3.06 percent to close on Monday at 6,814.76.

“Aside from the technical bounce that we were already expecting, the sentiment got a boost from January manufacturing numbers,” said Christopher Mangun, head of research at AAA Equities.

He noted that the IHS Markit Philippines Manufacturing index (PMI) increased to 52.5 in Jan. 2021 from 49.2 in December, pointing to a turnaround in operating conditions after three straight months of contraction. This was also the highest PMI reading since December 2018.

“Most Asian stock markets also saw substantial gains which may have also improved the sentiment,” Mangun said.

“The main index’s gains today do not negate the current downtrend, however, if it can continue with this momentum until the end of the week, there may be some hope for the market,” he added.

All counters ended higher but the property counter posted the biggest gain of 4.57 percent.

The financial, services and mining/oil counters all rose by 3 percent.

The industrial counter added 2.14 percent, while the holding firms gained 1.83 percent.

Value turnover stood at P9.98 billion. There was net foreign outflow of P1.19 billion for the day.

There were 130 advancers that edged out 82 decliners, while 45 stocks were unchanged.

PLDT led the day’s rally with a gain of 7.08 percent, followed by SM Prime and JG Summit which both rose by over 6 percent.

Ayala Land also advanced by 4.24 percent.

BPI and Metrobank both rose by over 4 percent, while SM Investments and Universal Robina Corp. both added over 2 percent.

ICTSI and GT Capital both added less than 1 percent.

With retail investors now dominating the stock market, most activity continued to be on companies outside the main index.

AbaCore surged by 50 percent in relatively heavy volume, while PHA gained 22.11 percent.

APL, the day’s most actively traded company, climbed by 11.86 percent.

AC Energy and Basic Energy both added over 4 percent.

On the other hand, Ayala Corp. declined by 1.1 percent.—Doris Dumlao-Abadilla INQ