Tracking regional surge, Philippine shares rally close to 6,800-level

MANILA, Philippines — Local shares rallied for the second straight day on Tuesday, echoing much of the positive sentiment from Asian equities amid indications that China, the world’s second largest economy, would soon ease pandemic curbs. 

The Philippine Stock Exchange index soared 1.49% to close at 6780.78.

The broader All Shares index inched up 0.94%. Most of the sub-indices closed on the green, with property shares surging 3.57%. 

In a market commentary, Luis Limlingan, head of sales at local brokerage Regina Capital, attributed the gains to “window dressing and the latest MSCI rebalancing”.

Rastine Mercado, research head at China Bank Securities, saw volatility taking hold of trading today.

“The PSEI's performance today was volatile as it swung from relatively steep losses in the morning session to a steep gain in the afternoon session,” he said in an e-mailed commentary.

Mercado explained that the US Federal Reserve’s hawkish comments influenced morning trading. Bets on a slowdown in its pace of rate hikes have boosted markets for the past weeks, but some high-ranking members on Monday looked to play down the chances of a more dovish pivot.

He agreed with Limlingan’s assessment that MSCI rebalancing swung the market to an uptrend.

“Today's steep value turnover… and net foreign selling figure is likewise attributed to flows relating to the MSCI rebalancing,” Mercado added. 

Regional equities took on a cheery mood on Tuesday. Sydney, Seoul, Singapore, Wellington, Taipei and Jakarta were also in positive territory, though Tokyo dipped.

China was rocked by demonstrations at the weekend calling for more political freedoms and an end to the country's long-running and economically painful zero-Covid strategy that has seen millions thrown into lockdown for months.

Several arrests were made and security forces were out in force Monday to prevent a repeat of the protests, which were the most widespread since pro-democracy demonstrations were crushed in 1989.

The return of some calm helped Hong Kong stocks rally more than three percent and Shanghai more than two percent, with rumbling that the unrest could help push leaders to ease some of the strict containment measures. 

At home, foreign investors sold P2.17 billion more shares than they bought in the local stock market. A total of million 2.23 billion stocks, valued at P23.47 billion, switched hands on Tuesday.  — with AFP