THE PHILIPPINE STOCK EXCHANGE index (PSEi) recovered at the last minute on Friday – with only one of the six sectoral indices ending down – though it hovered just below the 8,300 line and marked its second straight weekly drop.

PSEi gained 28.03 points pr 0.33% to finish 8,295.95 – down 1.48% on the week though still up 21.27% year to date – while the all-shares index added 12.11 points or 0.25% to end 4,857.56.

The benchmark index had been largely in negative territory as of noon, with only the services sectoral index showing gains at that time.

“The market ended in positive territory today as local investors tried to keep the index above its support level of 8,100-8,200 area,” Jervin S. de Celis, Timson Securities, Inc. equities trader, said in a mobile phone message when sought for comment.

“I guess this is in anticipation of 3Q earnings reports and Meralco provided a sigh of relief on the part of the investing public after beating corporate earnings estimates,” he added, referring to the Manila Electric Co.’s third-quarter report that showed better profit performance than in the preceding two quarters.

That report drove the share price of the country’s biggest electricity distributor up 1.61% to close P290 each.

PSEi had been on a roll, closing at 10 record highs since mid-September until its 8,497.74 Oct. 17 finish, and has been in correction mode since then.

“The market continues its consolidation, or a medium-term consolidation,” Harry G. Liu, president of Summit Securities, Inc., said in a telephone interview when asked for comment, noting: “We are in the lower support level of 8,300.”

Providing constant lift to cap losses, he added, is general optimism over the expected enactment by yearend of the first of up to five tax reform tranches that will help finance the current administration’s ambitious infrastructure build, as well as “continuous construction of government and the private sector” that should help overall economic growth approach the state’s 6.5-7.5% target for 2017.

“Hopefully, there won’t be any bad news, except we have the forthcoming holidays with the ASEAN,” he added, referring to the Association of Southeast Asian Nations summit and related meetings in mid-November.

Malacañan Palace has declared Nov. 13-15 special non-working days in Metro Manila, Bulacan and Pampanga in order to ensure unhindered transport of heads of state flying in and out at Clark International Airport for the ASEAN meetings.

“Hopefully next year will be better, when the programs of the government will be coming in more aggressively.”

In the week ahead, Mr. Liu said, “We are seeing a window between 8250-8300.”

“Since we gained a new high of 8500 [in the middle of trading last Oct. 17 at 8,586.73 and Oct. 18 at 8,548.58]], the market needs some consolidation to meet with the higher level.”

For Luis A. Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development Corp., lift on Friday was provided partly by Wall Street “as a steady stream of healthy earnings restored confidence in the market a day after the S&P 500 and the Dow posted their biggest drops in more than seven weeks.”

The Dow Jones Industrial Average and the S&P 500 Index edged up 0.31% to 23,400.86 and by 0.13% to 2,560.40 on Thursday, while the Nasdaq Composite Index slipped by 0.11% to 6,556.77.

Much of Asia followed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and TOPIX Index, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, South Korea’s KOSPI, the Shanghai Composite Index and the Straits Times Index rising by 1.24%, 0.98%, 0.84%, 0.64%, 0.26% and 0.64%, respectively.

On the other hand, the Jakarta Composite, the S&P/ASX 200 and the MSCI AC Asia Pacific gave up 0.34%, 0.22% and 0.23%, respectively.

“Likewise, Philippine shares were traded upwards towards close. Earnings are also starting to come in, with PSEi heavyweight Meralco already reporting third-quarter results,” Mr. Limlingan said in a mobile phone message.

“Investors have been on the sidelines this week awaiting more results, as evident by thin value turnover this week amounting to just P5bn-6bn from average of close to P10bn.”

Most local sectoral indices finished with gains, with financials increasing by 17.21 points or 0.86% to 2,018.16, property rising 21.31 points or 0.55% to 3,893.37, services going up 5.16 points or 0.3% to 1,687.63, mining and oil adding 26.25 points or 0.2% to 13,176.29 and industrials edging up by 3.01 points or 0.02% to 10,880.72.

Only holding firms lost on Friday, giving up 2.83% or 0.03% to close 8,462.57.

Stocks that gained and those that lost numbered 95 each, while 46 others were unchanged.

Friday’s list of 20 most actively traded stocks showed those that gained were led by Alliance Global Group, Inc. that surged by 4.47% to close P15.88 apiece; DMCI Holdings, Inc. that rose by 2.89% to P15.68; Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co. that added 2.24% to P88.95 and BDO Unibank, Inc. that increased by 2.22% to P138 each.

Leading stocks that lost were Integrated Micro-Electronics, Inc. that gave up 5.33% to finish P17.42 apiece; SM Investments Corp. that went down by 1.27% to P935 and PLDT, Inc. that shed 1.12% to P1,679 each.

Trading volume thinned for a second straight day to 648.851 shares worth P4.603 billion from Thursday’s 992.582 stocks worth P4.718 billion.

Foreigners remained net sellers for a fourth straight day at P531.728 million, 34.97% less than Thursday’s P817.628 million.

“Foreign investors sold P531 million worth of shares today as the dollar strengthened due to the US House’s passage of a budget resolution that brings (President Donald) Trump’s tax reform program a step closer,” Timson Securities’ Mr. de Celis said.

“There’s also a speculation that the next US Federal Reserve chair is hawkish which may further strengthen the dollar before yearend which may result in foreign selling of local stocks.” – with inputs from P. P. C. Marcelo

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