Most Philippine share prices continue to rise

MANILA, Philippines—Most local stock prices edged higher for the fifth straight session on Tuesday as Wall Street extended gains overnight to bring back most US stocks to levels registered prior to the US credit rating downgrade by Standard & Poor’s.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 40.07 points or 0.92 percent to finish at 4,372.70.

Apart from an improved global risk appetite arising from upbeat US retail sales and indications of Japanese economic recovery, some investors also snapped up local stocks that were heavily sold down after the US rating downgrade.

The day’s gains at the local market were led by the services, property and mining/oil counters, which jumped by 2.3 percent, 1.3 percent and 1 percent, respectively.  Only the industrial counter ended in the red.

Turnover amounted to P5.48 billion.

There were 94 gainers versus 56 decliners while 47 stocks were unchanged.

Fastfood giant Jollibee, AGI, Lepanto “B” (open to local and foreign investors), DMCI, Philex, PLDT, Banco de Oro and BPI led the index higher.  Investors also scooped up shares of San Miguel Corp., Manila Mining “A” (open only to local investors), GERI and Nihao.

On the other hand, there was profit-taking on Lepanto A, EDC, Metrobank, First Gen, Aboitiz Power, Atlas and Leisure & Resorts.

EDC booked P5 billion in impairment charge for its Northern Negros Geothermal Power Plant in the first semester, resulting in a P2.3 billion net loss that in turn weighed down its parent firm First Gen.

Accord CapitaL Equities dealer Justino Calaycay Jr. said that overall, investors obviously were still hard pressed to find and strike a balance between the sound numbers of both the domestic macroeconomy and corporate earnings through the first semester on one hand, and the threats, uncertainties and risks presented by events abroad, on the other.

“Thus far, the rallies that usually mark the discounting of quarterly earnings expectations have not been as evident, buried under the concerns over the deterioration of Europe’s fiscal condition and the sustained perception of a weak US economy,” he said.

Meanwhile, the Dow Jones Industrial Index was up by 213.88 points to 11,482.90 overnight.

“Interestingly, despite the weak US data, the Asian export numbers have been surprisingly strong, with healthy upside surprises in the July numbers that have been reported so far. Although we expect a slowdown, we see the current strength of the export data as a positive,” investment bank BoFA Merrill Lynch said in a commentary.

“Asia is entering the global slowdown with a quite a bit of momentum, and there are regional factors—the resilience of China, intra-regional trade, and the ongoing recovery in Japan—which should help offset a US slowdown,” it added.