Share prices ended up Tuesday as investors took to bargain-hunting.
Reuters reported that a 5 percent fall in July has brought the Philippine Stock Exchange index’ (PSEi) losses this year to more than 25 percent, among Asia’s worst, compared with a drop of only 1 percent for MSCI’s broadest index of Asian shares ex-Japan. Bourses elsewhere among the region’s emerging markets posted gains on Tuesday.
The PSEi was up 66.17 points to 5,927.11, a 1.13 percent hike.
The broader all shares index was up 25.18 points to 3,493.64, a 0.74 percent hike.
Gainers and losers are even at 97 each with 45 stocks unchanged. Trading turnover reached P4.31 billion.
The peso closed at 49.19, up from 49.25 on Monday. It opened at 49.12, an intraday high and hit a low of 49.28. Trading turnover reached $849.4 million.
Most other Southeast Asian currencies firmed modestly, benefiting from global weakness that has plagued the US dollar since last week, driving the greenback to a near two-year low.
Stock markets globally were buoyed by hopes that the US Federal Reserve would reiterate its accommodative stance on Wednesday and signal it was ready to unleash even more stimulus spending to prop up the world’s largest economy.
“We think that Fed Chair Powell is unlikely to change his dovish tone and is likely to shed light on how much more accommodative monetary (policy) can be,” DBS Group Research strategists wrote, adding that the bank’s stance had been priced into markets.
Still, Indonesian stocks missed out on the gains, edging 0.2 percent lower as the country’s total number of coronavirus cases topped 100,000, Reuters said.
On Tuesday’s close, Luis Limlingan, managing director at Regina Capital Development Corp., noted the market started low, dropping 1.05 percent, before slowly reversing the trend as the session went on.
SB Equities Inc. said investors “looked to pick up beaten down blue-chips after President Duterte’s fifth state of the nation address on Monday, amid a mixed reaction from the speech which included asking Congress to fast-track corporate tax decreases while warning that the re-opening the economy to pre-pandemic levels wasn’t an option.
Most actively traded SM Investments Corp. was up P16 to P900. BDO Unibank Inc. was down P1.05 to P88.95. PLDT Inc. was up P7 to P1,327. Dito CME Holdings Corp. was up P0.09 to P2.75. Ayala Land Inc. was up P0.20 to P32.10. Jollibee Foods Corp. was up P1.10 to P129.10. Bank of the Philippine Islands was up P3.20 to P68.20. Metro Pacific Investments Corp. was up P0.04 to P3.06. Ayala Corp. was up P12 to P722.
