Market lets out a sigh as stocks finish flat

Stocks ended relatively flat on Wednesday as investors and traders focused on second and third liners.

By the closing bell, the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) had gained 0.02 percent, or 0.97 points, to 6,245.71. The broader all-shares index was up 0.14 percent, or 5.51 points, to 3,852.90.

“Substantial gains in small-cap PSEi issues were offset by losses in the larger-cap ones,” Chris Mangun, research head at stock brokerage firm AAA Equities, said in a research note on Wednesday.

“The main index has started to move sideways again after the massive drop and recovery that we saw last week,” he said.

“This relieved a lot of selling pressure and showed that there are some investors who are willing to hold on for the longer term, in anticipation of the economy’s recovery,” he added.

Subsectors ended the session mixed, with only financials and industrials ending with gains. Losers were led by property and mining and oil.

A total of 1.55 billion shares valued at 4.83 billion changed hands on Wednesday. There were 115 gainers against 82 decliners, while 47 companies closed unchanged.

Dito CME Holdings Corp. was the most actively traded for the session as it gained 28.8 percent to P9.84 per share.

It was followed by BDO Unibank Inc., up 0.2 percent to P102.70; Ayala Land Inc., down 2.03 percent to P31.35; Converge Information and Communications Technology Solutions, up 1.04 percent to P19.50; and AC Energy Corp., up 1.02 percent to P6.93 per share.