June 26, 2001

FICKLE

The market went through another mild dip of just over a point as a lack of technical and fundamental incentives brought about mixed results in the trading of publicly listed stocks today. Trending downward for the seventh consecutive session, the index still has to hit an oversold position. With more investors now at the sidelines awaiting clearer signals, turnover has dipped a bit in recent sessions. In fact, right now the market seems to be running on rumors again, as we have seen many times in the past during periods of downturn.

AJO, which caught punters' imaginations yesterday with a near-ceiling performance, became the latest victim of a fickle market. We learned that the company's pet subsidiary, QNET which is now involved in the deployment of video conferencing terminals is expecting a strategic investor to sign up within a week for about a 25% stake. In the floor, there was much initial excitement as the issue rose by as much as 13% to P1.56, coming off its P1.38 close yesterday. It didn't last long however, as a lot of traders dumped the issue, resulting in the issue's 5.8% drop to P1.3. Volume however continued to swell with 14.9mn shares trading hands.

Construction firm DMCI Holdings earlier reported an P85mn profit for the first quarter, recovering from a P65.6mn loss in the same quarter last year. The company's revenues improved by 69.2% to P1.5bn. Despite the news, the DMC shares slipped by 3.33% to P0.29.

Meralco disclosed that its board of directors approved the appointment of Meralco President Manuel M. Lopez as Chairman and CEO, Chairman Felipe B. Alfonso as Vice Chairman, and EVP Jesus P. Fransisco as President and Chief Operating Officer. MERB closed up by P5 to P56 while MER closed unchanged at P39.

RFM denied that it was actively looking for buyers of its softdrink unit Cosmos. The company instead claimed that it was only looking at prospective buyers as a duty to its shareholders. Furthermore, the company added that talks regarding the sale of CBC are still exploratory. RFM gained 4.17% to P1.5, while CBC lost 6.67% to P4.2.

Mondragon in a breakthrough announcement said that it had agreed with PAGCOR to re-open Mimosa, which used to generate around P100mn/month. Under the deal, the casino will be re-opened on July 6, with 75% of the gross casino revenues to be kept by PAGCOR. The rest will be split between MON and the Clark Development Corp. MON owes Pagcor P82mn and CDC P325mn. MON shares remained suspended.