PSEi continues to rise

MANILA, Philippines—The local stock index firmed up for the fourth straight session on Monday as the US and regional markets coped well with disappointing US jobs data.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange added 31.11 points or 0.52 percent to close at 6,042.25, led by the rise in services and mining/oil counters which both advanced by over 1 percent.

Only the property counter ended in negative territory, albeit declining at a marginal pace.

Turnover for the day amounted to P5.96 billion. There were 82 advancers against 63 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

The PSEi was led higher by JG Summit (+4.86 percent), which is seen benefiting from good prospects for retailing affiliate Robinsons Retail (+8.47 percent) which went public late last year.

Joseph Roxas, president of local stock brokerage Eagle Equities Inc., said the market was expecting Robinsons Retail to benefit from accelerated consumer spending because of the peso depreciation against the US dollar.

URC, AC, PLDT, Metrobank, EDC, DMCI and MPI all gained by over 1 percent while DMIC and AGI also contributed to the day’s gains.

But the day’s most actively traded stock was retailer Lucio Co’s Cosco (+3.97 percent), which is not part of the PSEi. Roxas said Cosco was likely only playing catch up with its peers.

Meanwhile, BPI, LTG, ALI, GTCAP, AP and Megaworld saw a decline in share prices.

Across the region, markets were mostly higher as investors were relieved that US stocks on Friday stood resilient to weak US jobs data for January, during which employers hired fewer workers than expected.