PSE Index Retreats

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index retreated below a key milestone today as investors cashed in on their gains.

The Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) Index, September 3, 2024

The index closed at 6,882.92 points, down by 40.49 points or 0.58%, with only the holding firms sector posting gains.

The holding firms sector was the sole outlier, with SM Investments rising by ₱9 to ₱904.50, up by 1.01%. It gained 0.11%, while other sectors declined: Financials dropped by 0.78%, Industrials fell by 0.60%, Services decreased by 1.23%, Mining slipped by 0.29%, and Property edged down by 0.36%.

Analysts attribute the decline to a lack of market catalysts, with the economic impact of Typhoon Enteng dampening investor optimism. This has hindered the index from breaking through the coveted 7,000-point level.

Over the past two weeks, the index briefly touched this level during intra-day trades but failed to close above it.

During today's session, the index reached a high of 6,950.61 points but hit a low of 6,878.48 points. There were more losing stocks than gaining ones, with 109 losers against 83 gainers, and 52 issues remained unchanged.

Value turnover was low at ₱5.08 billion, with foreign trades accounting for ₱4.58 billion. Foreign investors were net sellers, with net sales of ₱20.5 million, based on foreign buying of ₱2.303 billion and foreign selling of ₱2.282 billion.

ICTSI was the most active stock, with ₱580 million in trades, as it declined by ₱6.40 to ₱398.60.

Among the gainers were Ayala Land, Globe Telecom, Jollibee Foods, CEMEX Holdings, Security Bank, Union Bank, Alternergy, Axelum, Century Food, DNL Industries, Abacore, Alliance Global, Cosco Capital, Philex Mining, Nickel Asia, and Ginebra.

Stocks that remained unchanged included BDO Unibank, PNB, Petron, Figaro Coffee, Megaworld, PAL, Belle Corp, DigiPlus, Haus Talk, and Metro Retail.

Notably, Citystate Savings hit the ceiling, closing at ₱13.40, up by 49.89% or ₱4.46 on trades of ₱3.3 million.

On the losing side were Universal Robina, Ayala Corp, SPNEC, SM Prime, Metrobank, ACEN Corp, First Gen, Meralco, Manila Water, Semirara Mining, Monde Nissin, Megawide, Shang Properties, Wilcon Depot, DoubleDragon, Converge, PLDT, DITO CME, ABS-CBN, GMA 7, Bloomberry, Cebu Air, Apex Mining, Atlas Mining, San Miguel, GT Capital, and OceanaGold.