Buying Frenzy Continues, but PH Stocks Retreat on Profit Taking
Manila—(PHStocks)—More investors entered the local market to take advantage of the country’s first-ever investment grade rating. This buying frenzy continued, driving the benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) index to briefly touch 6,956.92 – a new record intraday high – before succumbing to profit taking on Monday, 1 April. PSEi ended the day at 6,839.59, 7.88 points or 0.12% lower than the last trading day of March.
While the majority of the indices went down, the Holding Firms segment managed to pull in a decent growth of 1.3% at the end of the trading day. The Financials index, for its part, maintained an almost flat performance. So is the wider All Shares index, which gained just 2.59 points or 0.06%.
Buying and selling were very heavy, with the value turnover reaching PhP21.74 billion, on 2.87 billion shares traded. There were 72 gainers and 87 losers, while 46 stocks were unchanged.
The most active were Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (PLDT, PSE: TEL), Universal Robina Corporation (PSE: URC), Alliance Global Group Inc. (PSE: AGI), SM Investments Corporation (SMIC, PSE: SM) and Ayala Corp. (PSE: AC).
The top gainers for the first trading day of April are:
- GLOBALPORT 900 Inc. (PSE: PORT): PhP15.02, +49.90%
- Transpacific Broadband Group International Inc. (PSE: TBGI): PhP2.19, +10.05%
- South China Resources Inc. (PSE: SOC): PhP1.20, +9.09%
- Bankard Inc. (PSE: BKD): PhP1.34, +8.94%
- Vivant Corporation (PSE: VVT): PhP9.60, +6.55%
- MacroAsia Corporation (PSE: MAC): PhP2.69, +5.49%
- Medco Holdings Inc. (PSE: MED): PhP0.63, +5.00%
- SM Prime Holdings Inc. (PSE: SMPH): PhP19.80, +3.66%
- International Container Terminal Services Inc. (PSE: ICT): PhP95.00, +3.15%
- SM Investments Corporation (SMIC, PSE: SM): PhP1,150.00, +3.14%
The biggest decliners, meanwhile, are as follows:
- Central Azucarera De Tarlac (PSE: CAT): PhP14.50, -9.15%
- ATN Holdings Inc. “A” (PSE: ATN): PhP1.04, -8.77%
- Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company “B” (PSE: LCB): PhP1.05, -8.70%
- ATN Holdings Inc. “B” (PSE: ATNB): PhP1.07, -8.55%
- Sta. Lucia Land Inc. (PSE: SLI): PhP1.03, -7.21%
- Keppel Philippine Holdings Inc. “B” (PSE: KPHB): PhP5.25, -6.08%
- Liberty Flour Mills Inc. (PSE: LFM): PhP50.00, -5.66%
- Lepanto Consolidated Mining Company “A” (PSE: LC): PhP1.00, -5.66%
- Holcim Philippines Inc. (PSE: HLCM): PhP13.00, -5.25%
- Lafarge Republic Inc. (PSE: LRI): PhP10.36, -4.78%