Thursday, July 08, 2004

July 8 The Philippine Stock Market Review

The Phisix continued with its sideways movement as the declines of the FOUR major index heavyweights led to the Philippine benchmark index to close marginally lower by .18% or 2.92 points. Streaking hot PLDT finally saw some reprieve and closed 1.2% lower today accompanied by declines in Ayala Land down by 1.75%, Bank of the Philippine Islands lower by 1.17% and San Miguel foreign or B shares likewise lower by .71%. Cushioning the declines were advances in SM Primeholdings up by 1.63% and Metrobank higher by 1.85%. Globe Telecoms, Ayala Corp and San Miguel local shares closed unchanged for today.

The two major Telecom issues accounted for more than half or 54% of today’s output, although it seems that today’s stock darlings, a carry over from yesterday, were the still the cement issues led by Bacnotan Consolidated (surged by 29.29%), and Union Cement Corp (soared by 15%) on continued speculations arising from the recent buyout deals.

Market breadth indicated overall bearishness as decliners led advancers 38 to 21, while industry indices were mostly down except for the oil and banking and financing indices and lastly foreign money registered a puny P 3.369 million worth of outflows.

Moreover, foreign participation relative to today’s total output increased to about 70% while overseas investors bought one more company than it sold by 14 to 13, these suggests that foreign money had mixed sentiment over today’s trading activities and were cautiously positioning in select issues.

The load of today’s foreign selling was still directed to GLO, with Meralco B and Ayala Land among the top companies that recorded the largest outflows. On the other hand, SM Primeholdings one of today’s index heavyweight winners registered the largest inflows from foreign capital while Union Cement and First Philippine Holdings were also among the top shopping items for foreign investors.

Our market seems to reflect the sentiments of the region which as of these writing are mostly trading lower. Except for Pakistan whose remarkable gains upstages all the bourses in the region, India, Australia and Thailand are the other minor gainers whom defied the rather glum outlook.

It does seem that local investors, whom were the market movers for the past sessions over the week, were less active in today’s trades and were mostly on the selling side of the trade equation.

The major composite benchmark index has been attempting to encroach the 1,600-level barrier during the past sessions but has met considerable selling. One probable reason for the apparent inability to push beyond the said resistance level is that local investors have been unable to muster the sufficient force to drive the other index heavyweights higher. The market’s current “animal force” has been the foreign driven PLDT while the other heavyweights have variably performed. Local investors have seemingly been content to push second and third tier issues instead, which again highlights the namby-pamby speculative proclivities by most of the local investors.




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