Stocks resume rally

Local stocks resumed their upswing Friday as investors cheered the Securities and Exchange Commission’s softer stance on foreign ownership and improved outlook on the global economy.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index rose 33.18 points or 0.55 percent to finish at 6,051.75.

“The mere signal of a direction toward imposing the foreign ownership restriction to common or voting shares appears to have been well-received by the market. It seems to also have had an immediate impact of supporting the upward movement of the market. We are hopeful that the government can issue rules or guidelines pertaining to foreign ownership that will not be deemed disruptive to investor behavior while remaining faithful to the ruling issued by the Supreme Court in this matter,” PSE president Hans Sicat said.

The SEC has indicated that it might adopt more market-friendly rules than the draft issued for comments last year.

The counters that benefited the most were mining/oil (+2.13 percent) and services (+1.46 percent). Only the property counter (-1.13 percent) ended in the red. Value turnover was heavy at P9.43 billion. There were 116 advancers that edged out 52 decliners while 42 stocks were unchanged.

“The market volume of P9.4 billion can be attributed to strong foreign buying. We may look forward to overall new highs,” said Ramon Garcia, president of brokerage RTG & Co.

Index heavyweight PLDT surged 1.97 percent on news that the SEC was no longer keen on imposing a 60-40 percent local-foreign ownership requirement on each class of shares in partly nationalized industries like utilities. Doris C. Dumlao