PSEi gains as trade talks move forward

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market opened the week on a strong note, hoping that the US-China trade talks would move forward this time.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 34.35 points, or 0.43 percent, to settle at 7,884.29, while the broader All Shares index also rose 17.60 points, or 0.37 percent, to finish at 4,759.09.

The other gauges were mostly up, except for the mining and oil which slipped by 0.94 percent.

However, total value turnover was thin at P3.75 billion. Market breadth was positive at 96 to 74, while 71 issues were unchanged.

“The positive developments from the US-China trade negotiations sent the local market higher together with its regional peers,” Philstocks Financials said.

Traders said the market cheered the first phase of the trade deal talks. This after the US has agreed to suspend tariffs that were supposed to go into effect today.

The gains came despite disappointing import and export data from China due to the trade war.

“Here at the PSE, the main index ended with some gains on extremely low trading volumes. Turnover value for the day was extremely low at P3.54 billion, a little more than half of the daily average. More than half of the trading yesterday was done by foreign investors with net-buying at a measly P68 million. The PSEi ended higher on very low volumes which tells us buyers are in control for now,” said Christopher Mangun of AAA Securities.