Rising COVID-19 cases, inflation pull back PH shares

The local stock barometer returned to the doldrums on Thursday as concerns over rising domestic inflation and coronavirus cases negated good tidings from regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) declined by 89.14 points, or 1.31 percent, to close at 6,719.18, underperforming all peers in the Asia-Pacific.

“It’s looking to be another sideways ending for the week for the PSEi as the remaining two days lack any immediate catalysts enough to kick the index out of its rut,” local stock brokerage Papa Securities said.

The brokerage added that liquidity was likely being sapped from the market by investors’ fixation with stocks outside the PSEi. For instance, it cited the large value turnover on third telco play Dito.

The run-up on Wall Street on Wednesday had been largely ignored by the local market due to “persistent overhangs, especially on the inflation side and rising COVID cases,” the brokerage said.

“As such, we continue to keep an eye on the major 6,600 support as the index still seems poised to touch that level with technicals still making lower highs,” it added.

Holding firms

The market was weighed down most by holding firms, whose subindex fell by 2.28 percent.

The industrial counter fell by 1.25 percent, while the financial and services counter both slipped by less than 1 percent.

On the other hand, the mining/oil counter added 3.55 percent, while the property counter added 0.08 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P8.6 billion. There was P808.8 million worth of net foreign selling for the day.

There were 120 advancers that edged out 112 decliners, while 39 stocks were unchanged.

JG Summit fell by 3.39 percent, while Ayala Land, SM Investments, Globe Telecom and Universal Robina Corp. all shed over 2 percent.

PLDT and Jollibee lost over 1 percent, while BDO, BPI, Ayala and ITCSI all slipped by less than 1 percent.

On the other hand, SM Prime bucked the day’s downturn with its 2.09-percent gain, while Metrobank added 1.05 percent.

Many investors also turned to stocks outside the PSEi for trading opportunities. Dito recouped 16.67 percent and was the day’s most actively traded company.

Next to Dito, Apollo Global and PHA were the most actively traded companies, respectively gaining 26 percent and 25.64 percent.

Da Vinci and Basic Energy surged by 17.46 percent and 15.48 percent, respectively.

Meanwhile, MerryMart added 10.87 percent, while AC Energy firmed up by 0.88 percent. INQ