PH stock index rises to 6,480.12 despite regional downturn

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MANILA, Philippines — Local stocks firmed up on Wednesday after the previous day’s doldrums, bucking the regional downturn.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index recouped 31.94 points or 0.5 percent to close at 6,480.12 in thin trade.

Value turnover amounted to P7.039 billion. Despite the overall index gain, there were more stocks that declined (78) than those that advanced (58), indicating that the broader market was still too cautious to take fresh buying position.

The day’s gains were led by Jollibee (+5.97 percent) while shares of Petron, DMCI, URC and ALI all rose by over 2 percent. EDC, SMIC, MPIC, ICSTI and PLDT also contributed to the day’s gains.

Jollibee expects to grow its store network in China to 500 by the middle of next year, thereby attaining the scale needed to break even in its single biggest overseas market. Jollibee also expects to sustain its goal of growing earnings per share (EPS) by at least 12 percent each year on the back of a sustained same-store growth rate of 5 percent.

Meanwhile, the index gains were curbed by the decline of AEV, FGEN, Semirara, which all fell by over 2 percent while SM Prime, Megaworld, Meralco, BPI and Belle slipped by over 1 percent. Shares of Bloomberry and Manila Water also declined.

Across the region, stocks were mostly lower on concerns over China’s economies woes and uncertainties over the US Federal Reserve’s regime of easy money.