THE Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) dropped 20.6 percent in the first half of the year as the main index closed at 6,207.72 on June 30.
Quarter on quarter, however, the PSEi rose by 16.7 percent. It has also rebounded by 34.3 percent from its lowest closing level for the year of 4,623.42.
“While the index may have recovered from oversold levels, it has not been able to climb back to its pre-Covid-19 levels, indicating that investors are still quite wary about the full impact of the virus on the economy and are concerned that the number of cases continue to increase despite the various community quarantine regimes we went through,” PSE president and chief executive officer Ramon Monzon said.
All sectoral indices were also down during the first half. The services sector decreased by 8.3 percent while the remaining sectors posted double-digit losses at the end of the semester, ranging from 15 to 35.6 percent.
Daily average trading value turnover was at P6.59 billion at the end of the first half, lower by 15.9 percent from the P7.84 billion average turnover in the same period last year. Foreign funds were net sellers at P68.44 billion, a reversal from the P21.26 billion net foreign buying registered at the end of June 2019.
“Foreign funds have left emerging markets including the Philippines as a result of the health and economic crisis caused by Covid-19. Even if there are attractive bargains in emerging markets, foreign institutional funds prefer to sit it out. Fortunately, local investors readily took over the buying momentum and kept our market resilient. In April and June, we noted that locals were responsible for 53 percent and 58.9 percent of value turnover,” Monzon explained.
Capital raised from the January to June period was P20.83 billion. This amount came from one initial public offering (IPO), one follow-on offering, one stock rights offering and two private placements.
“After the successful IPO of MerryMart Consumer Corp. and the listing by way of introduction of Altus Property Ventures Inc. in June, we hope to have two to three more capital raising activities for the rest of the year. Hopefully, these two new listings will help prop up trading activity even as we await the listing of the first real estate investment trust IPO,” Monzon added. (PR)