Merkado Barkada
October 27, 2025 | 8:32am
Today is the 300th day of 2025 (82% complete). It’s been a minute since I’ve paid close attention to the markets, so I’m not going to pretend like I have enough of a feel for what happened to make a quippy remark, except to say that it’s more than a little disheartening to see the PSEi back to trading with a 5-handle on my first day back at my desk. Spin it however you want (people selling down to buy the MYNLD IPO?), this is not a sign that things are going well for the market.
> PH: We start the week with the Maynilad [MYNLD 15.00] IPO offer period already underway. The offer closes on Wednesday, which is the same day that 8990 Holdings [HOUSE suspended] delists. Lightning crashes, a new mother cries (that’s a musical reference for all my early 90s comrades out there).
> International: Fed rate decision on Friday!
MB BOTTOM-LINE: Feels like the MYNLD IPO is taking up all the oxygen in the room right now. What little “market” I followed while I was on leave basically reduced down to socmed speculation that significant downward moves in some blue chip stocks and recent darlings were really just traders gathering dry powder (freeing up capital) to invest in the MYNLD IPO. Whether that’s true or not remains to be seen. Brokers want us (retail buyers) to think that the smart money (the institutional buyers) can’t get enough of this trade, but my anecdotal experience says that retail traders just aren’t all that rabid for the deal. Is the smart money right? Is the retail interest actually more intense than my personal experience would suggest? We’re about to find out. One thing to remember about smart money is that it doesn’t always share the same incentives as we do. And it makes bad bets, too. Just remember all the cash that GSIS and SSS threw into those disastrous ALLDY and HOME IPOs. You just do what is right for you.
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