By Arra B. Francia, Reporter
THE MAIN INDEX ended Friday flat and closed the week and the month higher due to month-end window-dressing after spending most of Friday in the red due to investor caution on nagging global trade worries as well as Argentina’s and Turkey’s economic woes.
The 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index eked out a 0.03% or 2.55-point gain to end 7,855.71 on Friday — was up for the second straight week by 1.15% and marked a multi-month peak — while the broader all shares index added 0.24% or 11.43 points to 4,722.33.
“The local barometer traded in the red for the majority of the session, although month-end window dressing via market-on-close orders raised the PSEi to end in the green…” RCBC Securities, Inc. said in a Stock Market Weekend Recap attributed to research analyst John Paolo D. Ayson, noting that “US President Trump’s plan to impose new tariffs on China and Beijing’s plan to limit new online games weighed… on the majority of Asian markets today.”
“A combination of a rebalancing of the MSCI portfolio, window dressing, trade war resumption were what led the PSEi to a flat finish for the last day of August,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis A. Limlingan said in a mobile message.
President Donald J. Trump was reported to be in favor of proceeding with a plan to slap tariffs on $200 billion worth of Chinese goods. The United States government gave companies until Sept. 6 to comment on the proposed duties.
Papa Securities Corp. trader Gabriel Jose F. Perez noted via e-mail that “[t]he PSEi was in fact trading in the red the entire day from negative sentiment on emerging markets due to Argentina’s and Turkey’s economic problems”, adding that “[v]alue turnover also spiked to… P8.0B from light trading during the day, which could be attributed to MSCI’s rebalancing.”
Reuters reported that Wall Street ended its four-day winning streak on Thursday ahead of a long holiday weekend, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average dropping 0.53% to 25,986.92, the S&P 500 Index falling by 0.44% to 2,901.13 and the Nasdaq Composite Index giving up 0.26% to 8,088.36.
Most major Asian bourses also fell on Friday: Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix Index by 0.02% and 0.22%, respectively; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index by 0.98%; the Shanghai Composite Index by 0.46%; the blue-chip Shanghai-Shenzhen CSI 300 by 0.50% and the Jakarta Composite by 0.01%.
South Korea’s KOSPI, however, chalked up a 0.67% gain.
LOCAL SENTIMENT STILL CAUTIOUS OVERALL
Friday’s finish marks a 2.39% increase from the PSEi’s close of 7,672 on July 31.
Still, four of the six sectoral indices ended in negative territory, led by financials which gave up 0.63% or 11.59 points to 1,810.09, followed by mining & oil that lost 0.49% or 48.67 points to 9,903.96, property which dropped 0.14% or 5.52 points to 3,945.53 and industrial which slipped by 0.12% or 14.21 points to 11,272.85.
On the other hand, holding firms advanced 0.35% or 27.19 points to 7,764.67, while services gained 0.12% or 1.84 points to 1,537.18.
Turnover climbed to P8.021 billion after some 1.084 billion issues switched hands from Thursday’s 1.249 billion shares worth P6.332 billion.
Stocks that declined outnumbered those that gained, 107 to 91, while 46 others were unchanged.
Investors abroad remained predominantly bearish for the second straight day, yielding net foreign sales of P45.414 million that were nevertheless less than half Thursday’s P105.35-million net foreign outflows.
Friday’s list of 20 most active stocks was equally divided between those that gained and those that lost.
Among the day’s gainers were shares in San Miguel Food and Beverage, Inc.; Bloomberry Resorts Corp.; Alliance Global Group, Inc. and Ayala Corp. which posted gains of 5.32%, 3.13%, 1.62% and 1.01%, respectively.
Those that lost included shares in Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co.; Megaworld Corp.; GT Capital Holdings, Inc. and Universal Robina Corp. were among the losers, shedding 1.21%, 2.13%, 1.57%, and 0.78%, respectively.

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