PSE Index Declines Another Level

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index declined further Wednesday, with five sub-indices posting losses and foreign investors remaining net sellers.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, January 8, 2025

The index closed at its lowest point of 6,496.72, down by 48.66 points or 0.74 percent.

Only the mining and oil index bucked the trend, closing 1.54 percent higher. The holding firms sub-index experienced the largest decline, losing 1.31 percent, with market bellwether SM Investments dropping ₱12.50 to ₱880.50. Ayala Corp. and JG Summit also posted losses.

Financials dropped 0.36 percent, services fell 0.58 percent, industrials declined 0.46 percent, and the property sub-index retreated 0.78 percent.

The index briefly rose at the opening, reaching a high of 6,566.71 points, before taking a roller-coaster ride as investors dumped their shareholdings. The biggest gainers were ABS-CBN's Philippine Depositary Receipts (PDRs), which topped the gainers' column with a 33.33 percent increase.

Meanwhile, ABS-CBN's common shares rose by 27.47 percent to ₱6.45, gaining ₱1.39, following speculation about the company’s future due to the filing of a franchise application for the embattled media giant.

Net foreign selling totaled ₱501 million, with foreign buying at ₱2.134 billion and foreign selling at ₱2.636 billion. Total trades amounted to ₱4.6 billion. There were 110 gainers, 106 losers, and 44 unchanged stocks.

Among the gainers were BDO Unibank, Jollibee Foods, Globe Telecom, PLDT, Converge, Dito CME, Ayala Land, GT Capital, DMCI Holdings, Citystate Savings, Bright Kindle, PNB, and Citicore REIT.

Meralco, Shell Pilipinas, Century Pacific Food, DNL Industries, Belle Corp., Apex Mining, OceanaGold, Nickel Asia, Philex Mining, AREIT, DM Wenceslao, Megaworld, MREIT, Ferronickel, Alliance Global, AbaCore, and Ginebra also ended the day in the green.

The losers included Metrobank, Bank of the Philippine Islands (BPI), ICTSI, China Bank, EastWest Bank, SM Prime, DigiPlus, ACEN Corp., Alternergy, Aboitiz Power, AgriNurture, Figaro Coffee, Manila Water, DoubleDragon, Security Bank, Robinsons Land, Universal Robina, Megawide, Fruitas, Cemex Holdings, Vistamalls REIT, and Puregold.

Unchanged stocks included Basic Energy, First Gen, Emperador, Haus Talk, and SPNEC