PSEi continues to advance

The local stock barometer advanced for the second session Monday, riding on a regional upswing inspired by resilient US stocks.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 54.16 points or 0.89 percent to close at 6,167.82 on across-the-board gain among its counters.

Risk appetite in the region was boosted by the 128.8-point surge in the Dow Jones industrial index on Friday while stock futures pointed to a further rally in Wall Street.

At the local market, the biggest gainers among the sub-indices were the financial, industrial, services and mining/oil counters, which all jumped more than 1 percent.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P6.59 billion. There were 97 advancers that edged out 54 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged.

Investors snapped up shares of Jollibee (+3.2 percent) as the local consumer play is generally deemed attractive. Metrobank and URC gained more than 2 percent while BDO, PLDT, AGI, Megaworld and Semirara also advanced by over 1 percent. Doris C. Dumlao