Bargain hunting lifts PHL shares after 3-day slide
PHILIPPINE STOCKS rebounded on Wednesday as players picked up beaten-down issues following the market’s three-day slide that caused the main index to log fresh multi-year lows.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) jumped by 1.5% or 84.95 points to close at 5,714.02, while the broader all shares index climbed by 0.96% or 33.26 points to end at 3,498.87.
The PSEi finished at multi-year lows in the past three days, bottoming out at a near five-and-a-half-year trough of 5,629.07 on Tuesday.
“The PSEi rebounded today as investors engaged in bargain hunting after several days of heavy selling… Overall, sentiment improved slightly as traders looked for short-term gains amid oversold market conditions,” Regina Cap-ital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message.
“The recovery came despite the peso weakening to the P59-per-dollar level again, reflecting continued external pressure.”
The peso plunged to a new all-time low of P59.17 against the greenback on Wednesday, down by 18.5 centavos from its P58.985 finish on Tuesday. This was worse than the previous record-low close of P59.13 hit on Oct. 28.
“The PSEi finally corrected higher amid some bargain hunting after declining for three consecutive trading days,” Rizal Commercial Banking Corp. Chief Economist Michael L. Ricafort said in a Viber message, adding that positive spillovers from Wall Street also helped boost market sentiment.
After Monday’s sharp rally, Wall Street had a muted start to Tuesday’s session but gathered steam as the day wore on, Reuters reported. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 559.33 points or 1.18% to 47,927.96, marking a record closing high. The S&P 500 rose 14.19 points or 0.21% to 6,846.62, and the Nasdaq Composite fell 58.87 points or 0.25% to 23,468.30.
The US Senate passed a deal on Monday that would restore federal funding after the record-long shutdown, which has disrupted food benefits for millions, left hundreds of thousands of federal workers unpaid, snarled air traf-fic, and delayed the release of government economic data.
Most sectoral indices closed higher on Wednesday. Services jumped by 2.66% or 61.10 points to 2,354.86; financials went up by 2.25% or 41.50 points to 1,882.56; industrials rose by 1.59% or 132.10 points to 8,395.56; mining and oil increased by 0.7% or 94.84 points to 13,544.16; and property edged up by 0.09% or 1.83 points to 2,020.62.
Holding firms slipped by 0.05% or 2.51 points to 4,524.74.
Advancers outnumbered decliners, 102 to 86, while 50 names were unchanged.
Value turnover went down to P6 billion with 1.30 billion shares traded on Wednesday from the P8.56 billion with 2.03 billion issues that changed hands on Tuesday.
Net foreign selling was at P36.3 million on Wednesday versus the P701.78 million in net buying on Tuesday. — Alexandria Grace C. Magno with Reuters
