By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
SHARE prices bounced back on the first day of August after taking a breather in the wake of a five-day rally, lifted by sustained net foreign buying for the sixth straight session and peso’s appreciation against the dollar.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) surged 2.16% or 166.22 points to close at 7,838.22, pushing the main index to its highest level in around three months, while the all-shares index jumped 1.63% or 75.40 points to 4,679.52.
“The peso’s recent strength and continued foreign inflows boosted the PSEi once again — 166.22 points this time to close at its high of 7,838.22,” Papa Securities Corp. trader Gabriel Jose F. Perez said in an e-mail.
Foreign investors marked their sixth straight trading day of net buying, amounting to P324.41 million versus Tuesday’s P255.59 million.
Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan also attributed the PSEi’s increase to the peso’s appreciation, which he noted allowed investors to shrug off weaker-than-expected Purchasing Managers’ Index reading for July.
The peso strengthened against the dollar on Wednesday to close P53.08 against Tuesday’s P53.095, but the local currency was still 6.31% weaker year to date.
“Also propelling the PSEi was the overnight performance of the other markets. US stock market indexes closed higher Tuesday but off their session highs (read S2/5), following news that the Trump administration made little progress in resolving its trade dispute with China,” Mr. Limlingan said in a mobile phone message.
Much of Asia was mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei and TOPIX indexes gaining 0.86% and 0.94%, respectively, while Hong Kong’s Hang Seng, the Shanghai SE Composite Index and the blue-chip Shanghai-Shenzhen CSI 300 dropped 0.85%, 1.81% and two percent, respectively.
Locally, all sectoral indices gained: mining and oil by 4.99% or 484.99 points to 10,199.40; holding firms by 3.14% or 238.52 points to 7,832.26; property by 1.63% or 61.39 points to 3,816.20; services by 1.60% or 23.97 points to 1,517.55; industrials by 1.54% or 166.81 points to 10,996.99; and financials by 0.49% or 9.26 points to 1,868.18.
Some 966.44 million shares switched hands, resulting to a turnover of P7.18 billion, compared to Tuesday’s 842.02 million issues worth P7.05 billion.
Stocks that gained outnumbered those that fell, 120 to 74, while 46 others were flat.
Seventeen of Wednesday’s 20 most active stocks gained, including PXP Energy Corp. (up 39.02% to P14.18); Ayala Land, Inc (2.69% to P41.95); Aboitiz Equity Ventures, Inc (4.10% to P59.70); SM Investments Corp. (4.21% to P990); and Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (2.97% to P4.85).
Three stocks on that list lost: Bank of the Philippine Islands; Bloomberry Resorts Corp. and Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.

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