Bargain hunting bolsters bourse
Credit to Author: Tyrone Jasper Piad| Date: Fri, 20 Dec 2019 17:11:59 +0000
LAST-MINUTE bargain hunting boosted the stock exchange to end the week on a positive note after trading sideways earlier.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) plunged to as low as 7,469.41 during intraday trading before settling at 7,773.12, which was 1.56 percent or 119.18 points higher from Thursday’s 7,653.94.
The wider All Shares, meanwhile, gained 0.88 percent or 39.98 points to finish at 4,598.83.
“Last-minute bargain-hunting sent the local market up,” Philstocks Financial Inc. said in a market comment.
Brokerage firm 2TradeAsia said the Metropolitan Bank & Trust Co., JG Summit Holdings Inc. and SM Investment Corp. led the rally by surging 5.43 percent, 4.03 percent and 2.90 percent, respectively.
Regina Capital Development Corp. head of sales Luis Limlingan said that earlier in the day, negative sentiment over the impeachment of US President Donald Trump put investors on the sidelines.
“However at closing, investors took the opportunity to bargain-hunt while waiting for developments in the trade negotiations between China and the US,” he added.
Wall Street was in the green, with the Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq rising by 0.49 percent, 0.45 percent and 0.67 percent, respectively.
In Asia, markets were mixed. Hong Kong rose by 0.25 percent, Seoul climbed by 0.35 percent, Singapore inched up by 0.04 percent and Vietnam added 0.44 percent. But Tokyo fell 0.20 percent, Shanghai declined by 0.40 percent, Jakarta dropped by 0.11 percent and Thailand was down 0.15 percent.
In Manila, all sectors were up except for industrial which plunged by 1.38 percent.
Volume turnover stood at 1.09 billion shares amounting to P13.15 billion.
Still, decliners led advancers, 92-78, while 55 issues were unchanged.