By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained for the fifth consecutive session on Monday, fueled by continued foreign buying and window dressing.
PSEi climbed 0.93% or 71.94 points to close at 7,773.32, while the all-shares index went up 0.64% or 29.75 points to finish at 4,645.28.
“Philippine shares rose for the fifth straight session, bucking regional weakness as foreign investors continued their buying spree, amid more second-quarter or first-half corporate earnings disclosures,” SB Equities, Inc. said in a daily market note.
“Despite opening weaker, the foreign flow helped the (PSEi) steadily rise throughout its session and finish on its day high,” it said.
Foreign investors recorded P511 million in net buying on Monday, marking the fourth straight session of such inflows and growing by 37.93% from Friday’s P370.74 million.
Papa Securities Corp. trader Gabriel Jose F. Perez said in an e-mail: “Window dressing and another round of foreign inflows propelled the index 71.94 points to close at 7,773.32. This is the fourth consecutive net foreign buying day since last Wednesday, the longest streak of inflows since… January.”
The PSEi bucked weakness across much of Asia, where Japan’s Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices slid by 0.74% and 0.43%, respectively, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, the Shanghai SE Composite Index and the blue-chip Shanghai-Shenzhen CSI 300 gave up 0.25%, 0.12% and 0.17%, respectively.
Locally, five of the six sectoral indices rose: holding firms by 1.69% or 128.25 points to 7,680.62, services by 1.15% or 17.14 points to 1,501.37, industrials by 0.98% or 106.26 points to 10,919.88, property by 0.80% or 30.45 points to 3,820.53 as well as mining and oil by 0.40% or 39.32 points to 9,811.29.
Only financials lost, dropping 1.06% or 20.30 points to 1,881.25.
Trading volume thinned to 1.02 billion shares worth P5.61 billion from 1.29 billion worth P6.22 billion that changed hands on Friday last week.
Stocks that gained slightly outnumbered those that fell, 98 to 91, while 57 stocks steadied.
Fourteen of Monday’s 20 most active stocks ended with gains, including International Container Terminal Services, Inc (up 5.8% to P88.40 apiece); Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc. (five percent to P57.75); Universal Robina Corp .(up 3.82% to P136); Ayala Corp. (2.32% to P1,013); GT Capital Holdings, Inc. (2.05% to P994) and Manila Electric Co. (up 0.53% to P380 each).
PSEi-member firms URC and Meralco released their earnings reports on Monday. URC reported a 23% year-on-year drop in net income for the first half, while Meralco’s consolidated core net income rose by seven percent in the same period.
Bank of the Philippine Islands lost 1.09% to P99.90 apiece, while SM Prime Holdings, Inc. shed 0.13% to P38 each.

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