Index stays above 6,900 on last minute buying

MANILA, Philippines — The index yesterday managed to stay above the 6,900 territory on last minute buying of selected stocks, traders said.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index closed at 6,917.49, up by 9.70 points or 0.14 percent, while the broader All Shares index finished at 4,191.36, gaining 16.71 points or 0.40 percent.

For the most part of yesterday’s session, the market was trading in negative territory on concerns ahead of the FTSE index rebalancing later this week.

“The PSEi reversed its losses on market-on-close buying. The local market was trading in the negative territory for most of the session, but losses were erased on last-minute buying. Net foreign buying persisted with P119 million, excluding block sales while value turnover was P6.32 billion,” AB Capital Securities said in a market commentary.

Market breadth was positive with 117 advancers to 91 decliners, while 54 issues were unchanged.

“Philippine shares eked out slight gains as bond yields fell despite data showing US inflation running hot. In addition, markets are beginning to position ahead of the FTSE rebalancing, which will take effect at the end of the week,” said Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital.

Traders said the market would continue to take a close watch on further progress in the country’s vaccine rollout and other catalysts such as the further reopening of the economy.

“With the arrival of more vaccines along with chatters of further easing of business restrictions particularly in NCR, expect investor sentiment to remain upbeat going forward, more so with the support of foreign buying. Nonetheless, it is unrealistic to expect the market to go up unhampered, thus as also noted last week, anticipate some profit taking, but consider taking advantage of price declines to accumulate for long-term positions,” COL Financial said in a market report.