Improving pandemic situation sends PSEi to over 8-month high

MANILA, Philippines — Local shares rallied at the start of the week to hit their highest level in nearly nine months as investors became upbeat on improvements in the Philippines’ pandemic situation.

Optimism returned to the trading floor of the Philippine Stock Exchange, sending the bellwether PSE index (PSEi) up 3.14% to close at 7,124.01 on Monday. Data showed this was the local bourse’s strongest finish since closing at 7,140.29 on January 21.

The broader All-Shares index likewise gained 1.97%. Broken down, all six sub-indices were in the positive territory, led by the 5.48% surge in property shares and 4.5% gains of stocks in the financials index.

For Aniceto Pangan, an equity trader at Diversified Securities Inc., the rally was likely driven by news of declining cases and increasing vaccination rates, which turned investors into bargain hunters.

“With most of the Asian Markets on the uptrend, this created a positive sentiment among investors thus bargain hunting ensued,” Pangan said.

“Also, OCTA sees positivity and reproduction rates of the virus at epicenter in Metro Manila on the downtrend, thus improving the sentiment on investors to go on bargain hunting in anticipation for a lowering of restrictions going to the next quarters,” he added.

Rastine Mercado, research head at Chinabank Securities, agreed with Pangan. "We also note that fund rotation into laggard sectors — such as banking and property — are also supporting the sustained uptrend of the PSEi,” Mercado said.

Elsewhere in Asia, Tokyo was boosted after new Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said he was not considering hiking capital gains tax any time soon, soothing investor worries that the government was planning such a move.

A rise in the dollar to a three-year high against the yen — on expectations for tighter US monetary policy — provided added support.

Hong Kong jumped 1.8% with tech firms enjoying some much-needed buying after China fined food delivery giant Meituan less than expected over monopolistic practices. The firm was up more than seven percent, as was ecommerce giant Alibaba.

Singapore and Mumbai also enjoyed gains, though Bangkok, Sydney and Wellington dipped. Shanghai was flat.

At home, foreign investors sold P820.7 million more shares than they bought in the stock market. A total of 2.44 billion local shares, valued at P11.76 billion, switched hands on Monday. — with AFP