The stock barometer rebounded sharply on Monday, albeit in extraordinarily low value turnover, coming from the bloodbath seen on Friday.
Tracking mostly upbeat regional markets, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 176.08 points or 2.81 percent to close at 6,446.31 ahead of Metro Manila’s return to enhanced community quarantine (ECQ).
“It looks like the market is digesting latest developments and how this will affect the economy and the market. We have been consistent with our view that the market is on its way to recovery. It may be choppy, but it looks like a lot of the negatives have been priced in as shown by its recovery today,” said Marvin Fausto, president of COL Investment Management.
“Recovery may take a bit slower, but we think people are getting used to how things work now so we’re not as surprised anymore. There may be bumps along the way but people are getting to be in a better footing this time around and it looks like we can even reach herd immunity by Christmas, hopefully, if vaccination proceeds as planned,” he said.
Investors also tracked the ongoing stream of second quarter local corporate earnings results.
The day’s rebound was led by the holding firm and property counters, which both rose by nearly 3 percent.
Value turnover was thin at P3.54 billion. For the first time in five trading days, there was net foreign buying, although modest at P135 million.
There were 119 decliners that outnumbered 78 advancers, while 46 stocks were unchanged.