Bargain-hunting on select blue chips buoys market

Share prices traded mixed in another subdued session yesterday although selective picking on blue chip stocks helped push the main index marginally higher at the close.

The Phisix snapped out of the red late in the session as bargain hunters swooped down on PLDT, Meralco B, Equitable PCI Bank La Tondeña to end 4.44 points, or 0.32 percent, higher at 1,398.15.

The broader All-Shares index moved sideways, inching up a mere 0.12 point or 0.02 percent to 744.32 as the sub-indices scattered off in different directions.

The commercial-industrial and property sectors landed in positive terrain; finance and mining headed south; while the oil counter stayed flat.

Individually, there were more unchanged stocks, at 40, while 22 issues advanced and 31 declined.

Value turnover was trimmed down to P440.47 million, a day after Lucio Tan’s MacroAsia Corp. emerged as the top traded stock with over 60 percent of aggregate deals due to a series of cross sales worth P450 million or 14 percent of its outstanding capital.

PLDT regained the most active spot with 16.66 percent of total transactions, adding P5 to P900 following the rise in its New York price. Yesterday was also the ex-date for the telecom giant’s cash dividend of P1.20 per share payable on Jan. 16.

Other heavily-traded blue chips were Meralco B and Equitable PCI, both gaining by 50 centavos to P45 and P53.50, respectively.

Joining them on the gainers list were La Tondeña (up P1 to P28); SM Prime (up 10 centavos to P5.20) and ABS-CBN’s PDRs (up 50 centavos to P47.50).

Shares of San Miguel A and B were both steady at P48.50 and P51, respectively. The food and beer conglomerate announced its board of directors had approved a share repurchase program of up to 10 percent of its issued and outstanding capital stock.

Ayala Corp. and its main subsidiary Ayala Land were likewise unmoved, finishing at P7.20 and P4.85, respectively. The Ayala group – consisting of Ayala Corp. and their Internet investment arms iAyala Co. and ALINet.com – has signed an agreement with Internet Initiative Japan Inc., (IIJ) to jointly establish on Internet data center to be called Ayala Port Makati with a capitalization of P300 million.