Traders hold back ahead of earnings season; PSEi up slightly

The stock barometer inched up on Monday as investors reassessed recent gains ahead of the third quarter corporate earnings reporting season.

Driven by selective buying of blue chips, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) added 6.35 points or 0.09 percent to close at 7,219.81.

“Philippine shares were off to a lukewarm start as investors will be given a snapshot of US industrial production [late Monday] and the housing market highlight on Tuesday. Earnings season is also now in full swing in the US before the Philippines follows in a couple of weeks, and a number of big names are set to report in the next few days,” said Luis Gerardo Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development.

In the United States, he noted that 41 S&P component companies have reported third quarter results so far, with 80 percent of them topping consensus expectations. “Anticipation is for solid corporate earnings against concerns about inflation and the economic recovery,” he said.

The index was led higher by the property counter, which gained 1.41 percent, while the financial and mining/oil counters both added less than 1 percent.

The services counter fell by 1.21 percent, while the industrial and holding firm counters added less than 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P11.25 billion. The market was supported by about P847.5 million worth of net foreign buying.

Despite the PSEi’s gain, market breadth was negative. There were 131 decliners that overwhelmed 67 advancers, while 42 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was shored up by gains eked out by RLC and Security Bank, which surged by 8.48 percent and 4.75 percent, respectively.

Ayala Land, ICTSI and URC all firmed up by over 2 percent.

BPI added 1.18 percent, while BDO, SM Prime, Ayala Corp. and GT Capital all added less than 1 percent.

Converge fell by another 11.95 percent on uncertainties on whether it would be included in the MSCI this year.

Converge needs to raise its public float to 25 percent from 20 percent to qualify for the closely tracked index.

Another PSEi newbie, AC Energy, tumbled by 4.59 percent.

SM Investments declined by 2.12 percent, while PLDT lost 1.57 percent.

Globe Telecom, Metrobank and Jollibee all shed less than 1 percent.

The most actively traded company for the day was Monde Nissin, which tumbled by 7.2 percent. INQ