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Philippines: Share prices manage to rise despite inflation woes
MANILA, Philippines — The stock market ended in positive territory yesterday, ignoring the three-year high inflation of 5.4 percent in May, analysts said.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange Composite index (PSEi) finished at 6,754.01, up 37.13 points or 0.55 percent while the broader All Shares gauge rose by 12.66 points or 0.35 percent to end at 3,598.51.
“Philippine shares edged higher on a relatively quiet session despite the release of the May CPI reading. For May, inflation continued to rise at 5.4 percent, which was in line with the Bloomberg media consensus, making this more of a non-event,” said Regina Capital.
All counters ended in positive territory, with mining and oil, and holding firms among the biggest gainers.
Total value turnover, however, was thin at P4.958 billion even as advancers edged out decliners, 96 to 90 while 42 issues were unchanged.
Foreign selling totaled P2.59 billion, as against foreign buying of P2.07 billion, for a net foreign selling of P512.12 million.
The most traded stocks yesterday were led by SM Prime Holdings, which lost 0.89 percent to close at P39.10 per share, followed by Ayala Land Inc., which rose 3.34 percent to finish at P30.95 per share, BDO, which was down 0.534 percent to end at P128.30 per share, and Globe Telecom, which was down 1.27 percent to finish at P2,394 per share. Newly listed Raslag Corp., which lost its market debut uptick, went down by 7.80 percent to close at P1.89 per share.
Completing the active list were Bloomberry, which lost 0.32 percent to close at P6.25 per share, followed by ICTSI, another Razon-led company, which closed at P214 per share, down 0.65 percent.
Meanwhile, Asian stock markets were mixed yesterday following a bond sell-off on Wall Street amid anxiety about higher US interest rates.
Shanghai and Tokyo advanced while Hong Kong and Seoul declined. The yen, already trading at two-decade lows, fell further to below 132 to the dollar.
Source: https://www.philstar.com/business/2022/06/08/2186747/share-prices-manage-rise-despite-inflation-woes