Stocks rebound as more firms report earnings

MANILA, Philippines — Philippine stocks slightly rose yesterday after declining for two consecutive sessions, driven by the release of positive corporate earnings, reports.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) rose 0.66 percent or 45.54 points to close at 6,909.45, while the broader All Shares index finished  0.47 percent or 17.15 points up to 3,677.48.

“A slew of positive earnings reports powered the market’s bounce from support after a brief dip during the morning session,”AB Capital Securities said in a commentary.

Market breadth was likewise positive, with 92 gainers against 83 losers, while 58 stocks remained unchanged.

Philstocks Financial Inc. analyst Japhet Tantiangco attributed the trading gains to investors hunting for bargains from its preceding two-day decline.

“The strong growth of the national government’s public revenue and the narrowing of its budget deficit in Q1 2022 gave sentiment a boost,”he said.

The Bureau of the Treasury (BTr) reported that the country’s budget deficit fell to P316.85 billion in the three months to March, from P321.47 billion in the same period last year.

“Philippine shares rose to recover some previous losses, as concerns over inflation and global economic growth stirred up further volatility across risk assets, Luis Limlingan of Regina Capital said.

“US equities on the other hand whipsawed between gains and losses as investors digested a slew of mixed corporate earnings from the likes of Microsoft and Alphabet. The former rose 4.8 percent after an upbeat earnings performance, while the latter fell -3.6 percent due to missed earnings consensus estimates. Investors await big tech earnings later from Apple, Amazon, and Twitter, along with results from Robinhood. Jobless claims are also due out as well,” he added

All sectoral indexes closed in the green, with mining and oil posting the largest gain as it increased 1.26 percent or 145.83 points to 11,636.26.

The property index registered the smallest gain at 0.04 percent or 1.49 points to 3,172.35.

A total of 70,731 trades valued at P5.73 billion were made.