PSE Index Declines On Regional Woes

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index posted a significant decline Monday due to regional economic concerns and a reversal in foreign investor sentiment.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, March 24, 2025

It closed at 6,192.02 points, down by 74.73 points or 1.19%. The continued decline in Indonesian stocks, driven by policy changes, affected the Philippine stock market, resulting in losses across all six sub-indices.

The services sector experienced the largest decline, with ICTSI falling 2.96% to ₱360, down ₱11, after reaching a high of ₱379.80.

Other sectors followed suit: services lost 2.32%, property declined by 1.39%, financials dropped 1.07%, industrials fell 0.59%, holding firms decreased by 0.54%, and mining and oil retreated by 0.52%.

Trading volume was down by a fourth, with a turnover of ₱4.633 billion.

Foreign investors were net sellers, recording net sales of ₱240 million, with foreign buying at ₱1.999 billion and foreign selling at ₱2.24 billion.

Market analysts attributed the decline to continued concerns over Indonesia’s market downturn, which began two weeks ago, as well as the impact of U.S. tariff policies under former President Trump, which contributed to a sell-off.

Declining stocks outnumbered gainers by a ratio of 2:1, with 123 stocks losing value compared to 61 gainers, while 50 stocks remained unchanged. Market bellwether SM Investments closed at ₱800 after a volatile session, hitting a high of ₱800.50 and a low of ₱793.

Some of the biggest losers included PhilWeb, which plummeted to ₱2.31, down 98 centavos or 25.2%, and Vantage Equities, which also dropped 25.2% to ₱0.92, down 31 centavos.

Other losing stocks included Ayala Land, SM Prime, Bank of the Philippine Islands, BDO Unibank, Union Bank, Ferronickel, First Gen, ACEN Corp, Aboitiz Equity, SPNEC, JG Summit, Filinvest Land, and Cosco Capital.

Megaworld, Robinsons Land, Globe Telecom, PLDT, Bloomberry, Wilcon Depot, Apex Mining, Atlas Mining, Nickel Asia, DITO CME, GMA-7, Vista Land, AREIT, Semirara Mining, Century Pacific Food, MREIT, Greenergy, and SSI Group were also in the red.

Meanwhile, gainers included Emperador, the most actively traded stock with ₱749 million in transactions, as well as Metrobank, National Reinsurance, Citicore REIT, Citicore RT, Belle Corp, OceanaGold, Philex Mining, Philodrill, Petron, PNB, DoubleDragon, Manila Water, Century Properties, ABS-CBN, Aboitiz Equity, Keeper Holdings, and Shang Properties.

Unchanged stocks included Alliance Global, GT Capital, Enex Energy, Cebu Air, VistaREIT, Converge, Shell Pilipinas, Agri Nurture, Alternergy, and Ginebra.