PSE Index Falls Below 7,000 Points

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index today fell below its milestone 7,000-point level, closing at 6,970.97 points, down by 81.19 points or 1.15 percent although it flirted with a big run-up to another surge until midway in trading when profit-takers cashed in their gains.

Photo Insert: The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, January 30, 2023

The mining and oil and property indices incurred big losses as the look-up for the US Fed's move on interest rates see a hawkish stance.

Only the financials survived the sell-down as BDO Unibank, which emerged as the most active stock, added a peso to its closing price of P124 on trades of P517 million, while Metrobank and Union Bank respectively rose by 50 centavos to P59.30 and P3.50 to P97 to nudge the sector to a 0.51 percent rise even with the loss in the Bank of PI of 10 centavos to P110.

Ayala Land, which went down by 5.62 percent to P31.05 and DM Consunji, which lost 6.40 percent to P11.70, down by P6.40, were the second and third most active shares with value turnover of P504 million and P410 million.

Market bellwether SM Investments went down by P14 to P930 though it gyrated to a high of P949.50 as the index moved up and then went down to as low as P926 on profit-taking before nosing a bit at the close.

Holdings went down by 1.08 percent, industrials by 1.,53 percent, services by 1.35 percent, mining and oil by 3.25 percent, and property by 2.21 percent.

Market analysts said that the possible rise in interest rates in the US Fed, when it meets in two days, is what prompted the sell-down as indications were apparent for a further increase as the US grapples with its inflation rate that is however seen to push the US economy to recession.

A downtrend in the economic growth of the US is seen to reflect lower growth rates in emerging countries like the Philippines.

Losers were almost three times that of gainers, the first time this happened in six months as a result. There were 147 losers against just 57 gainers and 38 shares unchanged as the market wildly fluctuated between a high of 7,053.72 points and a low of 6,929.18 points.

Value turnover amounted to P8.29 billion. PLDT lost P25 to P1,429, ICTSI went down by P1.20 to P211.80, Converge lost P1.16 to P17.20, Meralco lost P10.60 to P282, Jollibee Foods lost P1.40 to P240, and Ayala Corp went down by P5 to P745 while SM Prime rose by 10 centavos to P37.70, and Globe Telecom went up by P8 to P2,160.

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