Bargain-hunting lifts stocks

The local stock market firmed up Monday as good trade data out of China and Japan’s hosting of the 2020 Olympic games perked up Asian equity markets.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 22.42 points or 0.38 percent to close at 5,997.04. The main index, however, is still struggling to break the 6,000-mark.

All counters gained as last week’s sell-off attracted some bargain-hunting.

Value turnover was still thin at P5.4 billion. There were 89 advancers that outnumbered 53 decliners while 32 stocks were unchanged.

In a research note, local stock brokerage DA Market Securities said the PSEi had support at 5,680, near the recent lows of 5,678 (June) and 5,562 (August).

“On a five-year chart, major support remains at the 5,219 level. These levels present better areas of support and buying opportunity. Money management remains key. It must be noted that the PSEi remains to be in an intermediate downtrend (since late May) amid a five-year uptrend (since March 2009),” DA Market said.

The day’s biggest PSEi gainers were Aboitiz Power, DMCI and Meralco, which all gained more than 2 percent while URC, First Gen, AGI and SMIC also advanced by over 1 percent. RLC, Ayala Corp. and BDO also contributed modest gains.

On the other hand, the day’s biggest decliner was Manila Water (-2.15 percent) while Petron and Metro Pacific Investments both fell more than 1 percent. The market is cautiously awaiting regulators’ decision on a consumer complaint against the two private concessionaires MWC and Maynilad, an operating unit of Metro Pacific.

Meanwhile, Asian markets were mostly higher, led by China and Japan. Shanghai’s CSI rose more than 3 percent as of the local market’s closing time on news that China’s exports had grown faster than anticipated and also in anticipation of fresh measures allowing bank recapitalization on the mainland. Japan’s Nikkei225 likewise jumped 2.48 percent on news that Tokyo was selected as the venue for the Summer Olympics in 2020. Doris C. Dumlao