PH stock index further rises to 5,961.55

PSE index as of December 18, 2013, 3:46 PM. Screengrab from https://www.pse.com.ph

MANILA, Philippines — After a rough start, local stocks picked up steam in afternoon trade to close higher for the fourth straight session in thin trade on Wednesday ahead of US Federal Reserve’s decision on the prospective tapering of monetary stimulus.

The local stock barometer added 32.56 points or 0.55 percent to close at 5,961.55, tracking Asian equities, which were mostly higher ahead of the conclusion of the US Federal Open Market Committee meeting.

The US central bank earlier hinted that it might begin a small tapering of monthly bond-buying operations very soon and such a “small” tapering has been discounted by the market, some dealers said.

Value turnover amounted to P6.84 billion but excluding block transactions, volume was thin at P4.46 billion.

There were 76 gainers versus 69 decliners while 45 stocks were unchanged.

By counter, the financial, holding firms, services and property counters firmed up while the industrial and mining/oil sub-indices slipped.

The day’s index outperformer was AGI (+6.12 percent). Bloomberry was likewise up by 3.73 percent while Metrobank gained 2.47 percent. ALI, AEV, ICTSI, DMCI, URC and PLDT went up by over 1 percent.

On the other hand, the day’s PSEi laggers were Jollibee and EDC, which both tumbled by over 3 percent while SMPH and MPI declined by over 2 percent.