PSE trading up by 40.4%, net foreign buying surging

Rappler.com

This is AI generated summarization, which may have errors. For context, always refer to the full article.

Net foreign buying surged to P48.87 billion, up 182% from this time last year

QUICK START. Trading has surged in the first 3 months of this year, with net foreign buying particularly up.

Trading at the Philippine Stock Exchange (PSE) was up 40.4% in the first three months of 2015 driven by robust market participation by both foreign and local investors.

PSE trading from January-March was at P641.59 billion ($14.6 billion), compared to P457.08 billion ($10.3 billion) a year ago. The average daily turnover also rose by 47.5% year-on-year to P10.87 billion ($245 million),the PSE said in a statement.

Net foreign buying in the January to March period soared 182% to P48.87 billion ($1.09 billion) from P17.33 billion ($390.9 million) in the same period in 2014 (read: Hot money up in February at $1.2B).

“Investors are really keen on being part of the Philippine growth story. We hope that upbeat corporate earnings and optimism over the local economy will continue to attract investors to our market,” said PSE president Hans B. Sicat.

The busy trading activity in the first quarter boosted the 30-company Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) to register 23 all time intra-day highs, the most recent of which was then the market hit 8,007.98 on March 30.

Total market capitalization of listed companies increased to P14.98 trillion ($337.9 billion), up by 17.6% from P12.74 trillion in the first quarter of 2014. 

The PSEi posted a 9.8% gain in the first quarter of 2015, the biggest quarterly gain since the first quarter of 2013 when the main index grew by 17.8%. The All Shares index, on the other hand, was higher by 6.9%.

Four of the 6 sectors were also up while two were slighltly down. 

The Property and Holding Firms sectors posted double-digit gains at 13.6% and 12.3% respectively. The Financials sector rose 9.9% while the Industrial sector advanced by 7.1%. 

However, the Services and Mining and Oil sectors posted slightly lower gains, down by 1.2% and 2.1% respectively.

Successful rehearsal for PSEtrade XTS

The PSE also said that the first market rehearsal for its new trading system, the PSEtrade XTS, was successful.

“We are pleased with the turnout for the market rehearsal, it provided our market operations team and brokers the experience of using XTS It also gave us the opportunity to identify issues that need to be resolved as we prepare for the implementation of the new system,” Sicat said.

The market rehearsal was part of the final stages of testing being done in preparation for the roll-out of the new trading engine in May.  

In July, the PSE announced that it tapped NASDAQ to be its new technology provider for its trading engine. 

Since then, the exchange has prepared its technological infrastructure for the shift to PSEtrade XTS. 

It also conducted broker trainings and broker system certification to ensure that all traders are familiar with the new trading system.– Rappler.com

 

US$1 = P44.3

Add a comment

Sort by

There are no comments yet. Add your comment to start the conversation.

Summarize this article with AI

How does this make you feel?

Loading
Download the Rappler App!