China factory data, gains in property lift PH shares

The stock market finished in the green on Wednesday on encouraging Chinese manufacturing data and substantial gains in the country’s property sector.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) inched up by 0.39 percent or 22.63 points to close at 5,864.23 while the wider All Shares gained 0.22 percent or 7.75 points to end at 3,528.85.

Diversified Securities Inc. trader Aniceto Pangan said the bourse rose higher after China reported an improvement in factory activity in September.

The East Asian country’s Purchasing Manager’s Index rose slightly to 51.5 in the month after slipping to 51.0 in August. Any figure above 50 signals growth; below that, a contraction.

The continued appreciation of the Philippine peso — P48.465 against the US dollar on Wednesday — also helped the index climb, Pangan said.

AAA Equities Head of Research Christopher Mangun said general investor sentiment remained cautious, but should improve if economic activities continued to pick up and the number of new coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) cases in the country continue to decline.

As of Wednesday, that number increased by 2,426 to 311,694, of which 52,072 are active. Of the total, 253,488 have recovered from Covid-19 and 5,504 did not.

“Investors are also watching out for the effects of the recently passed economic stimulus package,” Mangun said, referring to Republic Act 11494, or the “Bayanihan to Recover as One Act,” which President Rodrigo Duterte signed on September 11.

Mangun also said the market’s marginal rebound was partly prompted by gains scored by large-cap property companies. One of them, SM Prime Holdings Inc., saw its shares rise by 3.16 percent. The stocks of another, Ayala Land Inc., rose by 0.85 percent.

“This may be considered bargain-hunting, as these issues have been battered heavily in the last few weeks,” he added.

The market would continue trading sideways until investors see more concrete signs of the country’s economic recovery, according to Mangun.

Local sectors were mixed. Property led risers at 1.58 percent. Only financials and industrial declined by 0.73 percent and 0.46 percent, respectively.

Total volume turnover hit 1.07 billion shares, valued at P5.48 billion.

Losers slightly edged out winners, 98 to 91, while 49 securities were unchanged.

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Article and Photo originally posted by The Manila Times last October 1, 2020 10:04am and written by Faye Almazan.