PSEi up on bargain-hunting, foreign buying
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Thu, 17 Jan 2019 16:19:55 +0000
THE stock market rallied on Thursday, with analysts pointing to bargain-hunting for shares of property firms SM Prime Holdings Inc. (SMPH) and Ayala Land, Inc. (ALI) as having provided the lift.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.80 percent or 62.50 points to close at 7,927.20 while the broader All Shares grew by 0.61 percent or 28.71 points to finish at 4,743.84.
“Our index closed positively as the recovery of property giants SMPH and ALI lifted the bourse,” Timson Securities, Inc. trader Jervin de Celis said.
Shares of SMPH ended up by 3.51 percent or P1.30 to P38.30 apiece after declining on Wednesday following a local government unit’s pronouncement that there should be no reclamation projects in the bay area in light of a Manila Bay rehabilitation program.
ALI, meanwhile, rose by 4.41 percent or P1.90 to finish at P45 each.
“I guess the sell-off yesterday was taken by market participants as an opportunity to buy the stocks at a cheaper price,” De Celis said.
He added that foreign buying also helped prop up the market after Puregold Price Club, Inc. sold 104 million common shares to a Deutsche Bank unit at P45 apiece.
Net foreign buying totaled P3.8 billion as foreigners bought P9.27 billion worth of issues and sold P5.4 billion.
Gabriel Jose Perez, sales associate at P2P Trade Online, said 8,100 was likely the next resistance level for the market.
Only the industrial and services sectors registered losses on Thursday, dipping by 0.37 percent and 0.22 percent, respectively.
More than 1.21 billion issues valued at P14.16 billion were traded.
Winners led losers, 101 to 99, while 51 issues remained unchanged.
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