PSEi rallies on year’s best trading day

pse.com.ph photo

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock market had its best trading day so far this year on Wednesday, leading the main index past the 6,100 mark on expectations of improved global economy and rising momentum after hurdling a key market barrier.

Marking its sixth day of winning streak, the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index picked up pace to gain 120.62 points or 2 percent and close at 6,139.86.

It was the first time for the index to climb back to the 6,100 level since December 4 last year.

Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc. said the rally was partly due to the seasonal rally in January as fund managers reposition for the year ahead.

Roxas said local equities gained momentum after the index broke out of the 6,000-mark, a key resistance seen by many traders that must be convincingly pierced for sentiment to turn favorable. As such, he said, it was the best session seen by the PSEi so far this year, adding that year-to-date gain for the index was now at 4.2 percent.

Turnover also improved to P8.29 billion alongside positive market breadth. There were 114 advancers against 60 decliners at the market.

The stocks that led the index higher in heavy volume were ICTSI (+5.79 percent) and BDO (+4.26 percent) while ALI, DMCI,JG Summit and BPI all gained by over 3 percent. SM Prime and Metrobank, on the other hand, rose by over 2 percent.

The two most actively traded stocks PLDT (+1.23 percent) and SMIC (+1.28 percent) likewise contributed to the day’s gains alongside AC and MPI which also rose by over 1 percent.

Wilson Sy, director at fund management firm Philequity Management Inc., said the local market was turning resilient even when regional markets were easing.

By the end of this year, Sy said the main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index could reach 6,500 to 6,600 just on earnings growth and even assuming that price to earnings multiples won’t rise beyond 17x, which means investors will pay only up to 17 times how much they intend to make.

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