Stock recovers amid bargain hunting

BARGAIN hunting enabled the main index to rally, prompting it to close in the 6,500 territory on Tuesday.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 0.63 percent or 40.66 points to its intraday high of 6,500.42, while the wider All Shares climbed 0.5 percent or 19.81 points to close at 3,988.83.

Philstocks Financial Inc. senior research analyst Japhet Tantiangco said bargain hunters took opportunities out of the local bourse’s back-to-back declines.

Tantiangco added that trading improved as Tuesday’s net value turnover of P5.12 billion was 14.13-percent higher than the previous day’s register.

He noted, however, that the figure is still “lethargic” as it remains below the year-to-date average of P8.93 billion, which implies that “many investors are still staying out of the market amid the elevated risks in our economy brought by the Covid-19 (coronavirus disease 2019) pandemic.”

The exodus of foreign funds also persisted as net foreign selling amounted to P487.97 million, marking its 13th day of outflows averaging P752.93 million daily.

Meanwhile, AAA Equities Head of Research Christopher Mangun said the minor gains in large-cap issues and the 5.34-percent rise of Universal Robina Corp. “offset significant losses in a couple of issues and ultimately carried the whole index higher.”

The local sectors were all in the green with mining and oil still leading at 2.18 percent.

Total volume turnover was at 5.84 billion shares valued at P5.52 billion.

Winners edged out losers, 106 to 84, while 56 securities were unchanged.