The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) was down by 0.6% on Wednesday, October 28, as local and global COVID-19 cases continued to rise and foreigners considered the impact of the upcoming United States election.

Two-thirds of the blue chips were either flat or in the red, while most sub-indices fell.

“Philippine stocks finished mostly lower as a spike in new [COVID-19] cases sent most value stocks lower, while other investors appeared to try and position their portfolios with less than a week until November 3,” said Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital, referring to the day of the US presidential election.

Foreigners shied away from Philippine stocks, resulting in net foreign selling amounting to P442 million.

Lopez-led First Gen Corporation was the biggest gainer, with its shares soaring almost 11%, as the Philippine government stopped accepting new applications for coal power plants. (READ: No more new coal plant applications under latest PH energy policy)

The Department of Energy on Tuesday, October 27, noted that the country needs to shift to a “more flexible power supply mix” that would help build a more sustainable power system in the country.

First Gen is the country’s leading company in renewable energy. It is into natural gas, geothermal, hydroelectric, wind, and solar energy, and provides around 21% of the country’s power supply.

Basic Energy, another company into the renewable energy business, also saw its stocks jump by 8.6% after the news.

Advancers led decliners, 112 to 89, while 46 were unchanged.

Corporate news

Public offerings – The Securities and Exchange Commission cleared the public offerings by Filinvest Land, Megawide Construction Corporation, and Cityland Development Corporation.

Filinvest will offer up to P6.75 billion of bonds for the first tranche of the offering, with an oversubscription option of up to P2.25 billion. The offer will consist of 3-year bonds due 2023 and 5.5-year bonds due 2026.

Megawide will offer 30 million non-voting perpetual Series 2 Preferred Shares, with an oversubscription option of up to 20 million non-voting perpetual Series 2 Preferred Shares, priced at P100 apiece.

The preferred shares will be listed and traded on the Main Board of the PSE.

Megawide expects to net around P4.96 billion from the offer.

Cityland will be offering commercial papers, eyeing to net around P1.39 billion.

Proceeds from the offer will be used to partially finance the construction of the company’s projects and to pay its maturing notes.

Puregold – Puregold Price Club posted a dip in its net income for the 3rd quarter of 2020, as its rent collections went down amid the coronavirus pandemic.

Its net income in the 3rd quarter went down by 4.6% to P1.65 billion from P1.73 billion in the same period last year.

This is a reversal from the 24% growth posted in the 2nd quarter.

For the first 9 months of the year, Puregold’s bottom line went up by almost 11% from P4.6 billion to P5.1 billion. – Rappler.com