Last-minute buying buoys PSEi to new all-time high

Last-minute buying in select stocks pushed the PSEi to close at a new all-time high for the second consecutive trading day on Tuesday, despite languishing in the doldrums during the morning trade.

The benchmark PSEi rose by 48.40 points or 0.54 percent to close at 8,999.02, the highest since it closed at 8,950.62 on Monday, January 22.

The broader All Shares gained 41.60 points or 0.80 percent to 5,214.61 at the closing bell.

PNB Securities Inc. president Manuel Lisbona said the market was driven mainly by last-minute buying in blue chip stocks.

“Last-minute buying ... It’s quite easy to influence the index. The index can be pushed upwards by just buying the heavyweights at the end of the day,” he said.

Foreign funds bought P4.919 billion of shares during the session and sold P4.654 billion for a net buying position of P264.818 million.

More than 1.187 billion shares, valued at P8.543 billion, changed hands. Advancers led decliners, 125 to 84, and 47 issues were unchanged.

Lisbona noted the top gainers were SM Investments Corp. (SMIC) which account for 13.54 percent of the PSEi. SMIC closed at P1,095 per share, up by P25 or 2.34 percent from P1,070 on Monday.

The PSEi was down earlier in the session, a knee-jerk reaction to the 2017 gross domestic product (GDP) results.

“The reported GDP was a bit lower, at the lower end of the range. In the morning, the market digested the news and took it a little badly but it went back up,” Lisbona said.

The Philippine economy grew by 6.6 percent in the fourth quarter to bring the full-year economic growth to 6.7 percent, the Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) reported.

Socioeconomic Planning Secretary Ernesto Pernia estimated earlier that the economy would grow within the 6.7- to 6.9-percent range.

“Most investors were expecting something higher, and there’s some underlying weakness. The BPO (business process outsourcing) industry parang nag-flatten out na, so people are thinking that the industry is maturing in its current form, so what it needs to do now is it needs to evolve,” Lisbona said. —VDS, GMA News