PHL shares rebound on sustained foreign buying
SHARES rebounded on Tuesday, ending above the 7,800 mark, as Wall Street digested mixed quarterly results from big banks.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) went up by 0.49% or 38.48 points to close at 7,826.46 yesterday. The broader all-shares index also ended 0.22% or 10.99 points higher to finish at 4,828.14.
“Mixed earnings from US financials and the lowest trading volume in 2019 made investors buy back into the local market this session. US stocks closed slightly lower on Monday as investors digested mixed quarterly numbers from big banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup… European markets eked out small gains in a lackluster trading session,” Luis A. Limlingan, head of sales of Regina Capital Development Corp., said in a mobile phone message.
Wall Street lost ground on Monday, dragged down by financials as underwhelming bank earnings curbed investor enthusiasm.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell 27.53 points or 0.1% to 26,384.77; the S&P 500 lost 1.83 points or 0.06% to 2,905.58; and the Nasdaq Composite dropped 8.15 points or 0.1% to 7,976.01.
“[Tuesday]’s positive close is mainly due to Sy stocks. SMPH and SM finished strong [on Tuesday] and lifted the PSEi by 35 points… Foreign buying in SM, SMPH, especially ALI also contributed to the recovery of our bourse from its decline [on Monday],” Jervin S. de Celis, equity trader from Timson Securities, Inc., said in a text message, referring to the ticker symbols of SM Investments Corp., SM Prime Holdings, Inc., and Ayala Land, Inc.
Shares in SM Prime Holdings went up 95 centavos or 2.44% to close at P39.90 apiece yesterday. SM Investments shares also surged P17.50 or 1.90% to finish at P940 each.
“SMPH is also a few centavos away from its all-time high, a resistance level that it has tried to break more than 5 times since 2017,” he said.
He added that more corporate earnings out of the US and Chinese economic data will drive sentiment for the last trading day of the week.
Sectoral indices were split between gainers and losers. Mining and oil led advancers, rising 2.58% or 196.39 points to close at 7,789.40. Property gained 1.51% or 62.71 points to 4,195.03 and holding firms went up 0.65% or 49.41 points to 7,547.31.
Meanwhile, financials went down by 0.57% or 9.86 points to close at 1,717.34; industrials declined 0.23% or 27.30 points to 11,604.38; and services dropped 0.09% or 1.51 points to finish at 1,584.59.
Value turnover went down to P7.14 billion from the previous session’s P7.87 billion, with 1.45 billion issues changing hands.
Losers trumped advancers, 107 to 85, while 42 issues were unchanged.
Net foreign buying continued, rising to P365.97 million on Tuesday from Monday’s P305.94 million and marking the sixth consecutive day of net inflows. — V.M.P. Galang with Reuters