Remittances drive PSEi rebound
THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) returned to the 6,000 level on Tuesday, gaining 2.65 percent, or 158.31points, to close at 6,128.64 as investors cheered an increase in money sent home by Filipinos working abroad.
“OFW (overseas Filipino worker) cash remittances in August grew by 4.29 percent year on year and this boosted market sentiment as higher remittances may help the peso recover against the US dollar,” said Michael Ricafort, chief economist at Rizal Commercial Banking Corp.
The Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas reported on Monday that cash remittances coursed through banks had risen to $2.72 billion in August, up from $2.61 billion a year earlier. Personal remittances, meanwhile, picked up by 4.4 percent to $3.02 billion year on year.
The PSEi was last in 6,000 territory on September 26, when it lost 3.83 percent to end the day at 6,020. It has now gained nearly 5 percent over the past five trading days but is still down short of 14 percent from the start of the year.
Monday’s stock market gain, Regina Capital Development Corp. Managing Director Luis Limlingan said, was also due to immense bargain hunting and positive cues from US markets.
“In the US, last night’s (Monday’s) moves were grounded on solid earnings reports coming from the US banks. Later on Tuesday, US time, Goldman Sachs, Johnson & Johnson, Netflix and United Airlines will be some of the bigger companies that will also report its quarterly results,” Limlingan noted.
Wall Street’s positive overnight performance also bolstered stock markets in the region, with Japan’s Nikkei 225 up by 1.42 percent to 27,156.14 and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng gaining 1.82 percent. The Shanghai SE Composite, however, fell by 0.13 percent.
All sectors closed in the green in Manila with the property subindex gaining the most at 4.2 percent and industrials at the tailed with 0.7 percent. The overall All Shares index added 54.88 points to end 1.72 percent up at 3,253.51.
A little over 351.7 million shares valued at P4.87 billion changed hands. One hundred nine listed firms saw their share prices improve while 73 posted declines. Fifty-two ended the day unchanged.