Index ends in red anew as price rally short-live

MANILA, Philippines — The volatility of the Philippine stock market manifested anew in yesterday’s session as share prices fell again after a short-lived rally.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEI) ended at 5,342.31 yesterday, down 66.21 points or 1.22 percent. Likewise, the broader All Shares gauge slipped 40.33 points or 1.22 percent to finish

at 3,238.48. The other gauges were down as well except for the property index which rose 3.09 percent. Total value turnover reached P4.403 billion. Market breadth was negative, 126 to 54 while 35 issues were left unchanged. Traders said investors decided to take profits from the market after two consecutive days of strong trades.

“After two days of gains, investors took profits yesterday which pulled the PSEi lower. We have been seeing less volatility in the last few days of trading as speculators walk away. This is also evident in the decrease of daily trading volumes compared to what we saw last week and the week before. We may continue to see profit taking tomorrow, being the last day of the week.

The main index is currently up 1.3 percent for the week, however, if we see massive selling tomorrow, it could end the week in the red,” said Chris Mangun of AAA Securities. Elsewhere, he said global equities markets closed mixed yesterday with the US markets down more than four percent as COVID-19 cases reach 200,000 with about 4,700 deaths.