Stocks are expected to remain sluggish when trading opens this year on Jan. 2 as investors are returning from a three-day holiday.
Philippine Stock Exchange president Ramon Monzon said the market jitters would likely lessen once the issue involving water distribution companies was resolved.
Despite the heavy foreign selling in the last trading weeks of 2019, the bellwether PSE index gained 4.7 percent to close at 7,815.26 points on Dec. 27.
The broader all-share index also picked up 2.9 percent to settle at 4,649.67 points.
Four of the six sector indices finished in the positive territory led by the property index which posted the highest gain of 14.5 percent. The services index ended higher by 6.1 percent, while the financial and holding firms indices rose 4.7 percent and 3.4 percent, respectively.
The industrial and mining and oil indices saw losses this year, declining 12 percent and 1.3 percent, respectively.
“The PSEi still had a decent finish despite the hefty decline in the share price of index stocks in the water distribution business. We hope that the issues concerning their sector will soon be resolved to lessen market jitters,” Monzon said.
The local bourse’s market capitalization registered a three percent increase to P13.95 trillion. The average daily value turnover hit P7.29 billion, up from the P7.15 billion in 2018.
The market registered P14.50 billion worth of net foreign selling, smaller than the P61.01 billion net foreign selling in 2018.
Total capital raised in 2019 reached P95.22 billion, around half of the P187.84 billion raised in 2018.
“The capital raising number this year was affected by issuers opting to tap the bond market or postponing their fund-raising plans. Also, two banks accounted for 60 percent of the capital raised in 2018, and we did not have similar big deals this year. We hope next year’s capital raising pipeline will be more robust,” Monzon said.
The PSE hopes to receive regulatory approval in 2020 to launch short selling and real estate investment trust and introduce the new sector classification.
