Domestic shares start week flat

WITH the start of the final quarter of the year, local investors remained anxious as to where the local market is heading, with the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) going up by 0.19 percent or 10.27 points to 5,449.55.

Meanwhile, the broader all-shares index inched up by 0.10 percent or 3.55 points to close at 3,481.71.

“Halfway through the final quarter of the year and nearing the end of the third quarter earnings cycle, investors are in some sort of a limbo, unsure of where the market is heading,” Accord Capital Equities Corp. analyst Jun Calaycay said earlier.

“Nevertheless, the local bourse remains one of the top performers in the global stage. Noticeably, the leader-board is dominated by equity indexes in the Asia-Pacific region, providing proof of the money trail away from the troubled areas. The challenges facing the China economy reflects in the poor, negative performance of the Shanghai index, year-to-date,” he added.

Almost all the sub-indices were up except for the services sector and the mining and oil counter.

Mining and oil welcomed the week with a 0.64-percent decline or 120.44 points to close at 18,678.48, while the services counter dropped by 0.30 percent or 5.14 points to 1,687.30.

The financials counter, on the other hand, climbed by 0.44 percent or 6.23 points to close at 1,415.25, followed by holding firms, which improved 0.42 percent or 19.58 points to 4,732.16.

The industrial counter increased by 0.27 percent or 23.46 points to 8,706.47, while the property counter ended flat with a 0.16-percent advancement or 3.37 points to close at 2,082.00.

In the previous week, the PSEi dropped by as much as points at Thursday’s close but managed to hold the psychological support at 5,400.

Gross value turnover for last week was 25-percent less than the preceding week, or P28.864 billion and P39.149 billion, respectively. This is less than the 14- and 200-week average of about P30.2 billion.

“On a daily basis, value turnover has been weaker than the same period daily average for the last seven sessions, a period which in turn saw the market little changed,” Calaycay said.