PSEi up on bargain hunting after three-day drop

The main index rose slightly on Tuesday on bargain hunting following its three-day slide, backed by positive momentum from Wall Street overnight.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.15% or 9.46 points to close at 6,093.53. Meanwhile, the broader all shares index dropped by 0.11% or 4.07 points to end at 3,657.85.

“The market ended in the green after three consecutive days of losses, driven by bargain hunting among investors,” Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan said in a Viber message. “However, sentiment remains cautious as the Philippine peso continues to depreciate against the US dollar, while the country’s balance of payments (BoP) narrowed in September.”

The peso weakened by 5.5 centavos to close at PHP 58.225 against the dollar on Tuesday from Monday’s finish of PHP 58.17, Bankers Association of the Philippines data showed. This was its worst showing in over a week.

Meanwhile, the country’s BoP position was at an USD 82-million surplus in September, shrinking from the USD 3.526-billion surfeit in the same month a year ago, the central bank reported on Monday.

This helped narrow the country’s end-September BoP deficit to USD 5.315 billion. However, this was a reversal from the USD 5.117-billion surplus posted in the same period last year.

“The local market bounced back from a three-day decline as bargain hunting prevailed. The positive cues from Wall Street helped in Tuesday’s rebound,” Philstocks Financial, Inc. Research Manager Japhet Louis O. Tantiangco said in a Viber message.

Wall Street stocks moved sharply higher on Monday with technology shares providing much of the upside muscle, as generally upbeat quarterly earnings results helped revive investor risk appetite, Reuters reported.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 554.28 points or 1.20% to 46,745.63; the S&P 500 gained 78.61 points or 1.19% to 6,743.00; and the Nasdaq Composite gained 343.37 points or 1.52% to 23,023.62.

Back home, most sectoral indices closed in the red on Tuesday. Mining and oil sank by 2.95% or 429.85 points to 14,112.61; holding firms dropped by 0.64% or 31.44 points to 4,874.01; property decreased by 0.25% or 5.72 points to 2,254.32; and financials went down by 0.1% or 2.19 points to 2,044.12.

Meanwhile, services rose by 1.09% or 25.21 points to 2,324.29, and industrials increased by 0.38% or 33.96 points to 8,964.54.

Decliners outnumbered advancers, 127 to 84, while 47 names closed unchanged.

“JG Summit Holdings, Inc. was the day’s index leader, climbing 3.75% to PHP 24.90. LT Group, Inc. was the index’s worst performer, dropping 3.77% to PHP 14.28,” Mr. Tantiangco said.

Value turnover went up to PHP 5.24 billion on Tuesday with 1.31 billion shares traded from Monday’s PHP 3.65 billion with 1.86 billion shares changing hands.

Net foreign buying was at PHP 231.58 million on Tuesday, a reversal of the PHP 118.81 million in net selling on Monday. — Alexandria Grace C. Magno with Reuters