PH shares post slight gain amid sluggish activity in the region

The local stock barometer gained slightly on Thursday amid mostly sluggish regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 15.35 point, or 0.19 percent, to close at 7,876.40.

“It was a boring day for the PSE. Almost 60 percent of trading today was done by foreign investors. Even third-liner and speculative issues that were heavily traded since the beginning of the week have calmed down. The main index is currently down 1.7 percent for the week. A positive move [on Friday] will be extremely good for the market in the long term,” said Eagle Equities head of research Christopher Mangun.

“[It] looks like we’re likely to see a quiet end for the week as US indices [on Wednesday night] took back most of their recent gains the previous two days, with the S&P500 dipping 0.5 percent. Note that we’ve been flagging the past few days that support for the major index before it sees a more significant bounce is still some ways away at its 200-day moving average,” local stock brokerage Papa Securities said.

The next support level for the PSEi would be at 7,700, which was also the high in December 2018, the brokerage said.

On Thursday, the PSEi was shored up by the financial, industrial, holding firm and property counters, which all eked out modest gains.

On the other hand, the services and mining/oil counters slightly dipped.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P5.09 billion. Net foreign buying stood at P699 million.

There were 120 advancers that edged out 78 decliners while 46 companies were unchanged.

GT Capital led the PSEi’s gainers, rebounding by 2.14 percent from the previous day’s drop.

GT Capital management’s guidance for 5 percent sales growth in the first half of 2019 could boost the conglomerate’s valuation, Papa Securities said.

Ayala Land, URC, AGI and Metro Pacific all firmed up by over 2 percent.

On the other hand, ICTSI, BDO, Ayala Corp., BPI and Meralco all gained.

On the other hand, PLDT and RRHI both lost over 2 percent while Megaworld also slipped.

Outside the PSEi, one notable decliner was 8990 Holdings, which lost 2.23 percent, while Megawide and Wilcon both dipped.