PH stocks hit new record high on news of impressive economic growth

pse.com.ph photo

MANILA, Philippines—Local stocks rallied to a new record high on Wednesday as investors bet on a favorable Philippine fourth-quarter economic report on Thursday.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 36.50 points, or 0.59 percent, to close at 6,271.23, extending its winning streak for the fifth day. The index breached 6,300 in intraday trade, marking a new peak at 6,320.60.

All counters were up except for the mining/oil counter.

Value turnover amounted to P9.58 billion. There were 98 advancers, which edged out 72 players while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Sun Life of Canada chief investment officer Michael Manuel said the 6,300-mark was tested as investors anticipated that the country’s fourth-quarter GDP numbers would “surprise on the upside.”

The government is scheduled to report on the country’s fourth quarter and full-year 2012 GDP performance Thursday morning at 10 a.m. It was earlier reported that President Aquino and the National Economic Development Authority hinted of good numbers to report Thursday.

In a forum organized by First Metro Investment Corp., PSE president Hans Sicat said Philippine corporations were on track to post a double-digit growth in 2013.

Sicat added that despite the boom in the market and the large foreign inflows, local money was still dominating trades accounting for 60-62 percent of total transactions.

The most actively traded stocks in the market were PLDT (+1.43 percent), Megaworld (+5.76 percent) and Metro Pacific Investments (+3.98 percent).

Other sharp index gainers were FGEN (+4.72 percent), SM Prime (+1.98 percent), Petron (+1.64 percent), ALI (+1.59 percent) and MWC (+1.27 percent). SMIC, BPI, URC, Metrobank, Meralco and AGI also contributed to the upswing.

On the other hand, the day’s gains were tempered by the decline of AEV, EDC, Belle, Globe, Jollibee, DMCI, Aboitiz Power, BDO, Philex and Ayala Corp.