PSEi little changed after MSCI review

MANILA  -The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) closed relatively flat during a mixed session on Friday after the latest MSCI Index rebalancing.

The PSEi was marginally higher by 0.09 percent, or 5.81 points, to 6,181.06 while the broader All Shares index added 0.22 percent, or 7.19 points, to 3,341.97.

Trading volume ended with 2.1 billion shares valued at P11.5 billion changing hands. Roughly half the value came from a P5.18-billion block sale of Metro Pacific Investments Corp. shares at the tender offer price of P5.20 apiece.

Metro Pacific has a standing offer to buy out minority stockholders until Sept. 7 this year as part of an ongoing plan to go private and delist from the Philippine Stock Exchange.

This also contributed to the steep jump in net foreign selling to P5.7 billion, data from the stock exchange showed.

PSE subsectors were a mixed bag as property, industrial and services gained ground while mining and oil, holding firms and financials retreated.

Metro Pacific was the top traded stock as it gained 2.38 percent to P5.17 per share.

SM Prime Holdings was up 2.40 percent to P29.90; BDO Unibank Inc., up 0.57 percent to P140.10; Bank of the Philippine Islands, down 2.73 percent to P107; and Converge ICT Solutions Inc., up 2.96 percent to P8 per share.

Jollibee Foods Corp. was up 1.27 percent to P240; Ayala Corp., down 1.14 percent to P609; International Container Terminal Services Inc., down 0.58 percent to P206; and Ayala Land Inc., up 3.31 percent to P28.05 per share.