PH stocks rebound on good news from US markets, China trade

pse.com.ph photo

MANILA, Philippines — Local stocks bounced on Wednesday after a two-day slump, drawing strength from rallying US markets, an upbeat China trade data and a good stream of first quarter local corporate earnings.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index recouped 35.18 points or 0.49 percent to close at 7,181.30.

Trading was mixed across counters, with the property sub-index (+1 percent) leading the day’s gains.

Holding firms and services also ended higher, making up for the slack in the financial, industrial and mining/oil counters.

Value turnover stood at P9 billion.  There were 70 advancers versus 94 decliners while 53 were unchanged.

Ayala-led Globe Telecom (+4.52 percent) and ALI (+2.18 percent) posted the day’s steepest index gains on good earnings results.  Despite the steep drop in Globe’s first quarter earnings, analysts said core earnings were good enough.

ALI, on the other hand, sustained a favorable momentum in the first quarter.

Petron, AC, MPIC, Jollibee, PLDT, DMCI, URC and Megaworld also contributed to the day’s index gains.

Outside the PSEi, APM – soon to be renamed Cosco Capital – was up by another 3.66 percent following reports of a $500 million equity offering.