Ayala shares’ rally lifts bourse
Credit to Author: ANGELICA BALLESTEROS, TMT| Date: Wed, 22 May 2019 16:20:06 +0000
THE stock market rose for the fourth consecutive day on Wednesday, with gains said to have been helped by a rally in Ayala Corp.’s shares.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) jumped by by 1.21 percent or 93.51 points to close at 7,815.07. The broader All Shares, meanwhile, grew 0.83 percent or 39.71 points to end at 4,821.85.
AAA Southeast Equities Inc. President Matthew Cabangon said the local market was lifted by the Ayala-led holding company, whose shares increased by 6.47 percent or P55 to end at P905 each as a result of its share buyback from Japan-based conglomerate Mitsubishi Corp.
“The market has been anticipating this rebalancing by Mitsubishi, and this event passing has led to [Ayala Corp. shares] rallying today (Wednesday) and has been the biggest contributor in the rally in the index,” Cabangon explained.
In an interview, Philstocks Financial Inc. research associate Piper Chaucer Tan said local investors resorted to bargain-hunting after seven straight days of foreign outflows.
Net foreign selling persisted on Wednesday at P3.5 billion as foreigners loaded P3.7-billion issues and disposed of P7.2 billion. This included the P3.8-billion block sale of Mitsubishi.
Without the latter, the market should have recorded a net foreign buying position of P300 million.
Tan also said market sentiment was likely buoyed by the strong earnings performance of listed firms.
The PSEi grew in line with indexes in the United States. The Dow Jones rose 0.77 percent, the S&P500 increased 0.85 percent and the Nasdaq grew 1.08 percent.
Asian markets were mixed as Tokyo inched up by 0.05 percent, Hong Kong and Seoul rose 0.18 percent each, and Bangkok gained 1.02 percent.
Meanwhile, Shanghai declined 0.49 percent, Jakarta was down 0.20 percent, and Singapore finished unchanged.
In Manila, only the mining and oil index finished in the red, down 1.11 percent.
More than 850 million issues were traded valued at P10 billion.
Winners led losers, 112 to 78, while 43 issues were unchanged.
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