Market holds ground as selling pressure eases
The local stock barometer ended a tad higher on Wednesday, bucking mostly sluggish regional markets as investors remained on the sidelines, waiting for the government’s decision on whether to reimpose tighter lockdown protocols.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 7.75 points or 0.12 percent to close at 6,566.83.
“The market held its ground again today and ended flat on lighter selling pressure,” said Christopher Mangun, head of research at AAA Equities.
“Despite the decrease in selling, buyers were not willing to come in with confidence, which is why the recovery in prices was minimal. There is still a lot of concern regarding the possibility of a hard lockdown amid soaring COVID-19 cases. The government just restricted the entry of foreigners and has limited the entry of Filipinos to just 1,500 per day,” he added.
Mangun expects the PSEi to continue to move sideways between 6,500 and 6,600 until the end of the week.
“The sideways trend is a sign of uncertainty: the market can’t decide whether it wants to go higher or lower, ” he said.
The financial, industrial, holding firm, services and mining/oil counters all added less than 1 percent.
Only the property counter ended lower, albeit by a modest 0.52 percent.
Value turnover was thin at P6.85 billion as the DDMP REIT, which was on its last day of initial public offering yesterday, mopped up some of the liquidity in the market.
Foreigners remained net sellers to the tune of P256.96 million.
There were 122 advancers that edged out 94 decliners, while 47 stocks were unchanged.
Jollibee and ICTSI led the PSEi higher with their gain of over 2 percent.
Metrobank, PLDT, BPI and AEV all gained over 1 percent.
SM Investments and Meralco both added less than 1 percent.
Outside the PSEi, notable gainers included Prime Media, which surged by 47 percent.
Dito CME also gained by 4.52 percent.
SM Prime and JG Summit both declined by over 1 percent, while BDO, Ayala Land, Puregold, URC and Ayala Corp. all lost less than 1 percent.
