PSE Index Closes Month In Slight Recovery

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index experienced a roller-coaster ride Wednesday, dipping below its milestone level before recovering.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, July 31, 2024

However, it failed to sustain the upward momentum as a sell-down occurred. Despite this, with the financials and services sub-indices attracting the bulk of investments, the index closed up by just 12.73 points or 0.19% higher, at 6,619.09 points.

Only the property sector posted a loss, down by 1.24%, while financials rose 0.08%, industrials by 0.98%, holding firms up by 0.39%, services by 0.80%, and mining and oil advancing by 1.66%.

The services and financials sectors each accounted for trades of more than a billion pesos.

BDO Unibank, the most active stock, rose by 50 centavos to P137 on trades of P722 million, while DigiPlus pierced its year's high of P16.90 before settling at P16.86 on trades of P137 million.

Value turnover amounted to P5.62 billion, while total foreign trades reached P6.2 billion. Foreign buying amounted to P3.12 billion, while foreign selling hit P3.145 billion, resulting in net foreign selling of P18.7 million.

There were 92 gainers, 86 losers, and 63 shares that remained unchanged. Market bellwether SM Investments closed P1 higher at P908, although it reached a high of P919 during the session.

Other gainers included ICTSI, ACEN Corp, Metrobank, JG Summit, PLDT, Globe Telecom, Union Bank, Security Bank, GT Capital, Greenergy Holdings, Phil. Seven, Manila Water, Semirara Mining, Shell Pilipinas, Converge, San Miguel, LT Group, Areit RT, Jollibee, Axelum, AgriNurture, Figaro Coffee, Monde Nissin, Cebu Air, Puregold, and Belle Corp.

The losers included Ayala Land, SM Prime, Bank of the Philippine Islands, MRC Allied, Enex Energy, Alternergy, First Gen, Emperador, CEMEX Holdings, OceanaGold, Haus Talk, Ayala Corp, Bloomberry, Dito CME, Megaworld, and Synergy Grid.

Stocks that remained unchanged were China Bank, PNB, Meralco, Petron, SPNEC, PAL, Atlas Mining, Universal Robina, and Cosco Capital.