PH stocks hit new all-time high

Photo from pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines—The local stocks index surged to new record highs breaching 5,700 on Tuesday as investors stockpiled ahead of what is expected to be a buoyant 2013.

Defying mostly lackluster regional markets, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index racked up 33.58 points or 0.59 percent to close at a new all-time high of 5,706.28 which was also the best level hit by the index. The local market has now marked new highs for the 34th time this year.

All counters contributed to the day’s upswing led by the property sub-index (+1.19 percent). Value turnover amounted to P7.93 billion.

Despite the overall gain, investors were mostly selective in loading up more stocks at lofty valuations.  As such, there were 76 advancers which only narrowly edged out 75 decliners while 56 stocks were unchanged.

Elsewhere in the region, trading was muted by a weak US factory data for November, which showed a three-year low in output.