THE BOURSE capped the week and the third quarter on a positive note, though ending nearly flat from Thursday.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) closed 15.39 points or 0.19% higher at 8,171.43 on Friday, while the broader all-shares index finished 23.1 points or 0.48% up at 4,841.35.
“Market is trying to hold its ground… I am bullish as long as we continue to stay above 8,100.” said Miko S. Sayo, trader at Angping & Associates Securities, Inc.
The six sectoral indices were equally divided between those that gained and those that lost.
Services led with a 25.43-point or 1.5% rise to 1,716.16, industrial stocks followed with a 110.37-point or 1.0% hike to 11,146.88, while property edged up 2.04 points or 0.05% to 3,850.91.
Mining and oil lost 86.72 points or 0.62% to end at 13,954.31, financials gave up 4.84 points or 0.25% to 1,961.24, while holding firms slipped by 8.56 points or 0.1% to 8,221.67.
Stocks that gained outnumbered those that lost 131 to 77, while 48 stocks finished unchanged.
Value turnover jumped to 9.916 billion shares worth P73.733 billion from Thursday’s 1.659 billion shares worth P10.579 billion.
Friday saw P31.685 billion in net foreign buying, compared to Thurday’s P2.572-billion net foreign selling.
“Philippines and US stocks traded mostly flat towards the end to sign the end of the 3rd quarter of 2017,” said Luis A. Limlingan, business development head at Regina Capital Development Corp., noting that “Asian indices struggled to track Wall Street’s Wednesday gains, despite a broad move back to riskier assets like equities.”
Wall Street had ended Wednesday trading higher, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average climbing 0.18% to 22,381.20, the S&P 500 Index gaining 0.12% to 2,510.06 and the Nasdaq Composite Index flat at 6,453.45.
Other Asia-Pacific markets were mixed, however, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and Topix Index, as well as the MSCI AC Asia Pacific down 0.03%, 0.08% and 0.16% at 20,356.28, 1,674.75 and 160.55, respectively, and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng Index, Shanghai-Shenzhen’s CSI 300 Index and the S&P/ASX 200 Index gaining 0.48%, 0.37% and 0.20% at 27,554.30, 3,836.50 and 5,681.61, respectively.
Among Friday’s most actively traded stocks, those that gained were led by PLDT, Inc. (3.8% up at P1,668); Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (2.29% at P6.70); Manila Electric Co. (2.17% at P283); Megaworld Corp. (1.16% at P5.23) and SM Investments Corp. (1.09% at P883).
Those that lost were led by PXP Energy Corp. (down 3.23% at P7.50); Security Bank Corp. (2.33% at P243.20); GT Capital Holdings, Inc. (1.19% at P1,161) and SM Prime Holdings, Inc. (1.006% at P34.45). – VVS
