Investors unfazed by rising prices
Investors shrugged off the higher local inflation reading for May, ending Tuesday’s muted stock market session in the green.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index rose by 0.55 percent, or 37.13 points, to finish at 6,754.01, while the broader all-shares index was up 0.35 percent, or 12.66 points, to reach 3,598.51 by the closing bell.
“Philippine shares edged higher on a relatively quiet session despite the release of the May CPI (consumer price index) reading,” Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said.
On Tuesday, the Philippine Statistics Authority reported that May inflation picked up pace to 5.4 percent from 4.1 percent the previous month due to higher food and transport costs.
Fan Cheuk Wan, HSBC chief investment officer in Asia, said in a virtual briefing on Tuesday that Russia’s war on Ukraine also exacerbated costs globally due to disruptions in supply chains.
“With the supply chain bottleneck, partly caused by the war, and partly caused by virus, lockdown and containment measures across the world … these have driven up the labor cost, production cost,” she explained.
All subsectors booked gains, with mining and oil taking the lead at 1.91 percent. This was followed by holding firms and property indices which rose by 0.90 percent and 0.52 percent, respectively.
Lighter volume
Value turnover slipped to P4.96 billion from P5.94 billion the previous day. Advancers outpaced decliners, 96-90, while 42 issues were on status quo.
SM Prime Holdings’ shares, which fell by 0.89 percent to P39.10 each, were the most actively traded yesterday.
This was followed by Ayala Land Inc., up 3.34 percent to P30.95; BDO Unibank, down 0.54 percent to P128.30; Globe Telecom, up 1.27 percent to P2,394; newly listed Raslag Corp., down 7.8 percent to P1.89; and Bloomberry Resorts Corp., down 0.32 percent to P6.25.
Other active names were: International Container Terminal Services Inc., down 0.65 percent to P214; Converge ICT Solutions, up 1.47 percent to P24.20; Ayala Corp., up 2.57 percent to P678.50; and AC Energy Corp., up 2.46 percent to P7.49 per share.
