The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index firmed up by 53.49 points or 0.83 percent to close at 6,477.94.
Trading was sluggish in early session but equities were perked up by reports that China’s manufacturing gauge expanded for a second consecutive month in September.
At the end of trading, all counters were up but the biggest gainer was the property counter (+1.02 percent) as last week’s announcement that the US Federal Reserve would keep its $85-billion monthly bond buying activities suggested that interest rates would remain at record-low levels for now.
Value turnover stood at P7.33 billion. The day’s upswing benefited mostly large-cap stocks as the 65 advancers were still outnumbered by 82 decliners while 37 stocks were unchanged.
The day’s outperformer among PSEi companies was ICTSI (+11.18 percent) which announced last week that it had finalized a joint venture deal to pursue a port project in Colombia, South America.
Another top PSEi gainer was Jollibee (+5.43 percent) while shares of AEV, Globe, EDC and RLC rose by over 2 percent. ALI, AGI, JG Summit and AP all gained by over 1 percent.
Meanwhile, the day’s biggest PSEi lagger was LTG (-2.52 percent) while PLDT, Petron, Bloomberry and URC all declined by over 1 percent.
Maria Arlysa Narciso, an analyst at AB Capital Securities, said the PSEI’s leap since last week may be welcome and refreshing but noted this was primarily caused by external developments and least by domestic events.