Bargain-hunting lifts Philippine stocks
The local bourse edged higher on Tuesday as investors hunted for cheap stocks following three consecutive trading days of declines.
By the end of the session, the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Index (PSEi) added 0.57 percent, or 35.49 points, to close at 6,289.85.
Likewise, the broader All Shares Index climbed 0.43 percent, or 16.02 points, to end at 3,751.27.
A total of 756.75 million shares worth P13.73 billion changed hands, stock exchange data showed.
Luis Limlingan, head of sales at stock brokerage house Regina Capital Development Corp., said bargain hunting lifted the index as traders took advantage of the bourse’s recent declines.
Traders have been struggling to find a spark that would help jolt life into the index in the past week, pricing in instead global trade tensions and US President Donald Trump’s move to impose a 100-percent tariff on semiconductors.
Frederick Go, special assistant to the president for investment and economic affairs, said in a forum hosted by the Economic Journalists Association of the Philippines they would lobby for an exemption.
Back at the bourse, only banks ended in the red territory as index heavyweight BDO Unibank Inc. slid by 1.21 percent to P138.30 each.
SM Investments Corp. was the most actively traded stock as it inched up 0.06 percent to P790, followed by: DigiPlus Interactive Corp., down 5.05 percent to P31; International Container Terminal Services Inc., up 1.02 percent to P494; JG Summit Holdings Inc., up 6.61 percent to P25; and Manila Water Co. Inc., up 6.22 percent to P40.15.
