Mining shares lead Philippine stock market rally

MANILA, Philippines—Mining stocks led the local equities market out of a rough start on Thursday, allowing the main index to rise past 4,300, despite another bad day on Wall Street.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index closed 20.88 points, or 0.49 percent, higher at 4,311.02.  It was down by nearly 2 percent in early trade but recuperated with the help of mining stocks.

Mining/oil brought excitement to the market as its counter surged by 4.2 percent.  Skyrocketing gold prices alongside merger and acquisition plays kept interest on the counter buoyant.

The industrial, holding firm and property counters eked out modest gains while the financial and services counters ended in the red.

Turnover amounted to P7.13 billion. Despite the overall index gain, there were only 62 advancers against 86 decliners while 37 stocks were unchanged.

Lepanto “A” (open only to local investors), Philex, DMCI, AGI, Lepanto “B” (open to both local and foreign investors), Jollibee, EDC, Megaworld and BDO led the PSEi higher. Manila Mining “A” and “B,” Atlas and San Miguel Corp. also traded higher in heavy volume.

The PSEi’s gains were pared down by the decline in the share prices of SM Investments, PLDT, Metrobank, Aboitiz Power and BPI.  High-flying Zeus also succumbed to profit-taking.

Overnight, the Dow Jones Industrial Index tumbled by 519.83 points or 4.62 percent as Wall Street’s concerns were aggravated by worries about Europe. In particular, the markets were worried that France may be the next to lose its triple-A credit rating after the US.