THE stock market continued to rally for a third straight day on Tuesday as investor sentiment was reportedly boosted by the positive momentum from previous trading days after the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) reduced banks’ reserve requirement.
The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose by 0.80 percent or 61.42 points to close at 7,721.56. The wider All Shares, meanwhile, grew by 0.73 percent or 34.74 points to end at 4,782.14.
The decision of the central bank last week “to cut interest rates…[made] our market bounce back after the decline, mainly due” to the tit-for-tat tariffs on imports that the United States and China imposed on each other, Eastern Development Securities Inc. trader Jayniel Carl Manuel said.
The BSP trimmed the reserve requirement ratio (RRR) last week by 200 basis points (bps) to 16 percent from 18 percent, to be implemented in three stages: a 100-bps reduction effective May 31 and two 50-bps cuts on June 28 and July 26.
In a separate comment, P2P Trade Online sales associate Gabriel Jose Perez said the rally the PSEi is experiencing “may have been driven by momentum from the previous days, as well as relatively smaller net foreign selling.”
Foreign funds slipped to only P328 million from over P800 million on Monday, as foreigners bought P2.94 billion issues and sold P3.27 billion.
The bourse’s rally mirrored those in regional markets. Sydney rose 0.4 percent, Seoul added 0.3 percent and Taipei was 0.7 percent higher. Mumbai, Bangkok and Jakarta were also in positive territory.
In contrast, Tokyo ended down 0.1 percent, Hong Kong dropped 0.5 percent and Wellington finished 0.2 percent.
All sectoral results finished firm, with the industrial index up the most by 2.51 percent.
Volume turnover stood at 750 million issues valued at P5.4 billion.
Winners led losers, 97 to 94, while 45 issues were unchanged.
WITH A REPORT FROM AFP
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