PSEi up amid Wall St climb

BARGAIN-hunting buoyed Philippine shares on Wednesday, following the rally of Wall Street overnight.

The bellwether Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 1.83 percent, or 129.44 points, to its intraday high of 7,215.13, while the broader All Shares rose by 1.44 percent, or 54.45 points, to close at 3,829.91.

Luis Limlingan, Regina Capital Development Corp. managing director, said investors hunted for bargains amid the rise of major benchmarks abroad “as the 10-year treasury yield cooled.”

US equities finished in the green, with Dow Jones, S&P 500 and Nasdaq climbing by 0.51 percent, 0.92 percent and 1.41 percent, respectively.

“The absence of an ‘accelerated change in policy’ statement on Fed Chairman Jerome Powell’s testimony before a Senate panel also boosted the market’s appetite for risky assets,” Limlingan added.

Japhet Tantiangco, Philstocks Financial Inc. senior research analyst, likewise attributed the local bourse’s rebound to the improvement of Wall Street overnight.

Tantiangco noted that the inflow of foreign funds also boosted the main index as net foreign buying amounted to P313.75 million.

Despite the rally, trading remained slow as net value turnover stood at P5.57 billion, still lower than the daily average of P7.38 billion last year.

“This is seen to reflect weak conviction as many investors remain on a wait-and-see mode amid the uncertainties on our Covid-19 situation,” Tantiangco explained.

The Philippines recorded another high of 32,246 new Covid-19 cases on Wednesday, bringing the total up to 3.058 million.

Meanwhile, all the local sectors posted improvements with the miners spearheading at 3.4 percent.

Total volume turnover was at 854.66 million shares valued at P5.95 billion.

Winners bested losers at 133 to 49 while 50 securities were unchanged.