1 month ago
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Richmond Mercurio - The Philippine Star
February 15, 2025 | 12:00am
JG Summit and URC will be deleted in the MSCI Philippines Index and will be added to MSCI Philippines Small Cap Index following the results of the February 2025 Index Review for the MSCI Equity Indexes.
Businessworld / File
MANILA, Philippines — The latest rebalancing of the MSCI will see the removal of Gokongwei-led firms JG Summit Holdings Inc. and Universal Robina Corp. (URC) from its Philippines index.
JG Summit and URC will be deleted in the MSCI Philippines Index and will be added to MSCI Philippines Small Cap Index following the results of the February 2025 Index Review for the MSCI Equity Indexes.
The MSCI Philippines Index is designed to measure the performance of the large and mid cap segments of the Philippines market.
Monde Nissin Corp. will join JG Summit and URC as the latest additions to the small cap index.
The changes in constituents for the MSCI indexes will take place on February 28.
MSCI serves as a leading provider of critical decision support tools and services for the global investment community.
AP Securities research head Alfred Benjamin Garcia said that a lot of foreign fund managers use the MSCI indexes as a guide for managing their Philippine investments.
As such, he said the removal or addition of a stock to an MSCI index could prompt fund managers to sell or buy that stock.
“For this specific instance, we’re estimating a net outflow of around $30 million for URC and $23 million for JG Summit, while Monde should see a net inflow of $9.5 million,” Garcia said.
“We should see URC and JG Summit trending lower in the coming days until the effectivity of the changes due to increased selling pressure. On the other hand, the inflows will likely keep Monde afloat even if the market declines further,” he said.
Sun Life Investment Management and Trust Corp. president Michael Enriquez said the MSCI rebalancing is not expected to generally affect the market since these are just passive movements.
“The two names (JG Summit and URC) are currently trading at attractive levels. However, for Monde, this can help boost the share price as tracker funds would need to buy this name by Feb. 28,” Enriquez said.
COL Financial chief equity strategist April Tan said that JG Summit and URC may continue to fall because of the index rebalancing.
“Both have been very weak since January due to this speculation,” she said in a social media post.
Shares of JG Summit closed 3.4 percent lower at P15.32 apiece yesterday.
URC shares rose by 1.86 percent to P62.95.
