The stock market rose Tuesday in thin trading after the Christmas break, with investors looking for a catalyst before boosting their holdings.
The Philippine Stock added 58.60 points, or 0.7 percent, to 8,490.91 on a value turnover of P3.6 billion. Losers edged gainers, 104 to 103, with 43 issues unchanged.
BDO Unibank Inc., the biggest lender in terms of assets, gained 1.4 percent to P155.80, while conglomerate Ayala Corp. climbed 1.9 percent to P1,029.
Globe Telecom Inc., the second-largest telecommunications company, fell 2.9 percent to P1,800, while JG Summit Holdings Inc. of industrialist John Gokongwei dropped 1.1 percent to P73.
The rest of Asian markets edged upward Wednesday, as fears over lackluster iPhone demand eased and commodities rose.
Shares in Apple—the biggest US company by market capitalization—and its Asian suppliers had slumped Tuesday after a report in Taiwan’s Economic Daily warned of weak demand for the iPhone X.
But that slide was arrested, with analysts suggesting media reports of supplier order cuts were “confusing the market.”
Hong Kong had risen 0.1 percent in afternoon trade, while Tokyo closed up also by 0.1 percent. Taipei added 0.6 percent.
Seoul was up 0.4 percent after the announcement of a new policy aimed at encouraging trades on the junior, tech-heavy Kosdaq market bolstered overall investor sentiment.
Shanghai fell 1.0 percent as profit growth at China’s major industrial firms slowed in the first 11 months of this year, new data from the National Bureau of Statistics showed.
Rosenblatt Securities analyst Jun Zhang said initial reports out of Taiwan likely only referred to previously announced iPhone 8 cuts, while a survey of mainland Chinese Apple suppliers found no order reductions, Bloomberg News reported.
Taiwan-based Apple suppliers Hon Hai Precision Tech—better known as Foxconn—and Catcher Technology rose Wednesday.
But positive news from smartphone suppliers was dampened by major losses at Hyundai Heavy—the world’s largest shipbuilder by sales—which announced a plan to issue new stocks to shore up its ailing finances.
Hyundai shipbuilding shares plummeted by the daily limit of 30 percent in mid-afternoon. with AFP