Stocks resume rally

Local stocks surged to new all-time highs Friday as a string of good data out of China and the United States boosted risk appetite across regional markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 67.03 points or 1.1 percent to close at 6,139.21. A new intra-day peak was also hit at 6,150.62.

For the week, the local index was up 87.46 points or 1.44 percent from last week’s finish.

“Markets rallied on the back of positive news flow from China, better-than-expected GDP (gross domestic product). [More relaxed] rules on foreign ownership limit may have also played a role in the rally and strong telco performance,” said Mark Angeles, head of research at First Metro Securities.

All counters were up for the day, led by the services sub-index, which posted the steepest gain of 2.29 percent, in turn buoyed by telecom companies PLDT and Globe. Last week, the Securities and Exchange Commission indicated that it would no longer impose the stiff 60-40 percent local-foreign ownership cap on all classes of shares of partly nationalized companies like utilities and real estate.

PLDT, the day’s most actively traded stock, was up 3.17 percent while Globe surged 4.67 percent. With PLDT’s gain, it was back as the stock market’s most valuable company with a market capitalization of P586.37 billion, albeit with a narrow margin over challenger SM Investment’s market capitalization of P585.59 billion.

Investors also loaded up on shares of SM Prime, Ayala Corp., BDO, SM Investments, Philex, Jollibee and Meralco.  Among the non-index stocks, GT Capital, FLI, D&L and Atlas gained in heavy volume.

On the other hand, shares of Metrobank, AGI, ALI and BPI declined. Shares of Puregold also dipped.  Doris C. Dumlao