Bourse gives up gains but stays above 7,900

THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) retreated on Wednesday due to a lack of domestic leads to counter the impact of declines on Wall Street and elsewhere in Asia due to another Brexit setback, but stayed above 7,900.

PSEi gave up 21.48 points or 0.27% to finish at the day’s peak of 7,933.76, while the all-shares index dropped 5.91 points or 0.12% to end 4,778.20.

“The PSEi resumed its drop today probably due to Wall Street’s lackluster performance last night and the absence of fresh catalysts here in the PH market. The mood among market participants remain subdued as we wait for more bluechip stocks to release their 3Q earnings result,” Timson Securities, Inc. Equity Trader Jervin S. de Celis said in a mobile phone message.

Regina Capital Development Corp. Head of Sales Luis A. Limlingan noted via text that “Philippines shares closed lower as investors pored through a slew of key earnings, the Sino-US trade talks continue, and as UK lawmakers debated Prime Minister Boris Johnson’s EU Withdrawal Agreement Bill.”

Reuters reported that Wall Street ended lower on Tuesday after British lawmakers rejected the government’s proposed timetable for passing legislation to ratify its deal to exit the European Union: the Dow Jones Industrial Average by 0.15%, the S&P 500 by 0.36% and the Nasdaq Composite by 0.72%.

Other major Asian bourses were mixed, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 and TOPIX indices gaining 0.34% and 0.59%, respectively, and India’s S&P BSE Sensex index adding 0.45%, while the MSCI Asia APEX 50 gave up 0.6%. The Shanghai SE Composite dropped 0.43%; Hong Kong’s Hang Seng fell by 0.82%; South Korea’s KOSPI went down 0.39%; and Singapore’s Straits Times Index lost 0.55%.

Only two of the six sectoral indices at home gained: mining & oil by 58.30 points or 0.64% to 9,074.90 and property by 15.28 points or 0.36% to 4,180.88.

The rest dropped: financials by 13.97 points or 0.74% to 1,859.54, services by 6.22 points or 0.4% to 1,531.01, industrials by 34.23 points or 0.32% to 10,634.70 and holding firms by 21.47 points or 0.27% to 7,750.76.

Stocks that declined beat those that advanced 91 to 82, while 61 others ended flat. Wednesday’s list of most active stocks showed six that gained, led by Semirara Mining and Power Corp. (1.73% to P23.50 apiece) and Globe Telecom, Inc. (1.27% to P1,920 each). The 12 that lost included Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (-1.8% to P4.90), Universal Robina Corp. (-1.13% to P157.20) and BDO Unibank, Inc. (-1.08% to P146.80). Two closed flat: SM Investments Corp. at P1,014 apiece and AllHome Corp. at P11.56 each.

Volume totaled 1.17 billion shares worth P4.67 billion, compared to Tuesday’s 368.70 million worth P6.04 billion.

Investors abroad stayed predominantly optimistic for the second day, increasing net buying sevenfold to P1.14 billion from Tuesday’s P156.50 million. — V. M. P. Galang