PSEi bounces to 7,900 level on bargain-hunting
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Wed, 07 Aug 2019 16:17:05 +0000
INVESTORS resorted to bargain-hunting on Wednesday ahead of the expected announcement of macroeconomic figures, pushing the stock market back to the 7,900 territory.
The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) increased by 1.94 percent or 150.64 points to close at 7,917.39, while the broader All Shares rose by 1.33 percent or 63.50 points to finish at 4,827.41.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said market players repositioned their portfolios ahead of the release of official gross domestic product (GDP) data for April to June and of the MSCI rebalancing, and the meeting of the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas’ policy-making Monetary Board (MB).
The Philippine Statistics Authority will announce today the second-quarter GDP figures, which will coincide with the MB’s latest meeting, during which a 25-basis point reduction in interest rates is expected.
Analysts polled by The Manila Times expect second-quarter GDP to grow at a slower pace year-on-year due to the continued impact of the delayed approval of this year’s national budget and the election ban on government spending.
They project the growth rate to settle between 5.7 and 5.9 percent, with a 5.8 percent average. This is slower than the 6.2-percent expansion in the second quarter in 2018 and slightly higher than the 5.6-percent growth in the first quarter.
Last month, then-Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas Deputy Governor Diwa Guinigundo said the economy likely grew by 6 percent in the period.
The local market traded in line with Wall Street, with its three main indices all up by more than 1 percent.
Regional markets were mixed, as Tokyo was down 0.33 percent, Shanghai declined 0.32 percent, Hong Kong slipped 0.11 percent and Seoul shed 0.41 percent.
Meanwhile, Jakarta was up by 1.46 percent, Singapore grew 0.30 percent and Bangkok rose 0.40 percent.
Locally, only the mining and oil was down by 0.34 percent. Others finished firmer.
More than 550 million issues were traded, valued at P6.6 billion.
Winners led losers, 112 to 75, while 60 issues were unchanged.