PH stock index boosted by PH’s investment grade rating from Moody’s

PSE index as of 03:46 PM, October 03, 2013

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock barometer was perked up on Thursday by a sovereign rating upgrade from Moody’s, the last among the three major global credit rating agencies to give the Philippine government an investment grade rating.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 25.39 points or 0.4 percent to close at 6,387.65. The local index rallied to as a high as 6,418.15 in intra-day trade, reversing early weakness, but gains at close were tempered by some selling on news.

Since last week, there were rumors about Moody’s credit rating upgrade coming very soon and Wednesday’s strong rally (+2.65 percent) may have anticipated this positive rating action, some dealers said. The market has been rising in the last three days.

“It (upgrade) has been expected,” said Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc.

Value turnover at the local market was also modest at P6.11 billion. While many large-cap stocks advanced to lift the PSEi, there were still more decliners (72) than advancers (62) for the day.

By counter, holding firms (+1.1 percent) led the day’s upswing. On the other hand, the financial and industrial counters declined.

The day’s biggest gainers were AGI (+2.92 percent), Bloomberry (+2.48 percent) and SMIC (+2 percent).

AC, EDC and URC were all up by over 1 percent while Megaworld, ALI, SM Prime and Philex also contributed to the day’s gains.

On the other hand, the day’s PSEi laggers were Semirara (-2.96 percent), SMC (-2.7 percent) and LTG (-2.56 percent). FGEN, DMCI, Jollibee and MPI also slipped by over 1.

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