Stocks gain slightly despite Duterte tirade vs big business

MANILA, Philippines — The stock market ended slightly up yesterday even as many companies and conglomerates nosedived because of President Duterte’s fresh attacks on big businesses.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained by 10.81 points, or 0.13 percent, to finish at 7,801.72. 

Likewise, the broader All Shares gauge ended up 4,645.96, up 5.33 points or 0.11 percent.

The sectors were a mixed bag with the financials, industrial, mining and oil and services ending in negative territory. On the other hand, the property and holding firms were the only ones that finished in the green.

Total value turnover reached P5.714 billion. Market breadth was negative, 85 to 81 while 59 issues were left unchanged.

2Trade Asia noted that the PSEi rebounded yesterday with P719 million in net foreign selling. 

This even as some listed giants fell to new 52-week lows. These include DMCI Holdings (down 1.31 percent), Metro Pacific Investments Corp. (down 3.68 percent), Manila Water Corp. (down 3.55 percent), Petron Corp. (down 1.41 percent),  and Philippine National Bank (PNB) (down 2.72 percent) among others. 

President Duterte has threatened to scrap the contracts of the two water concessionaires in Metro Manila. DMCI and MPIC are joint owners of Maynilad while Manila Water is owned by the Ayala Group.

 “The Philippine market remained on the sidelines with the impeachment (in the US) gaining momentum and OPEC to cut output. US and China officials reportedly are still at odds over the value of farm purchases,” said Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital.

Both US and China ,however, said they are in close communication.