Shares gain ground; CREC defers IPO

MANILA  —Philippine stocks rebounded on Tuesday amid a steady stream of corporate earnings.

By the closing bell, the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) rose 0.82 percent, or 56.05 points, to 6,854.66 while the broader All Shares Index added 0.54 percent, or 19.09 points, to 3,581.70.

About 520.65 million shares valued at P4.93 billion changed hands while foreigners made net purchases of about P666.5 million.

Ayala Land (up 2.8 percent) and SM Prime Holdings (down 0.45 percent) were among the firms that reported full-year financial results.

Services gained 2.4 percent, followed by financials and holding firms, which rose 0.83 percent and 0.75 percent, respectively.

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Meanwhile, tycoon Edgar Saavedra’s Citicore Renewable Energy Corp. (CREC) officially announced on Tuesday it would delay its P12.9 billion initial public offering (IPO) from March this year to the second quarter.

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CREC said it is also in talks with potential large investors ahead of the IPO and hopes to wrap up discussions “at the soonest possible time.”

“We don’t think there’s a cause of concern on CREC’s postponement of its listing to second quarter 2024. They’ve been bold in being the first to move on listing among the others that have postponed from last year and [were the] first to sound off on investor traction on a sizable IPO at these nascent stages of market recovery from 2022 and 2023’s challenging environment,” said Gabryle Aguila, head of equity research at Unicapital Securities.