Bargain-hunting lifts stocks

Local stocks fared well Friday even as global investor sentiment turned more cautious given lingering US economic woes and Washington’s crackdown against investment banking giant Goldman Sachs.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 26.32 points or 0.6 percent to 4,392.91 as investors picked up selected blue chips. Profit-taking on Lepanto and PLDT capped the gains of the PSEi for the day.

For the three-day trading week, the PSEi advanced 2 percent. The index has gained 4.6 percent since the start of the year.

By sector, the financial index rose 1 percent while the property and mining/oil counters succumbed to profit-taking.

Value turnover thinned to P4.48 billion from the previous day’s P6 billion. Despite overall index gains, there were only 64 advancers as against 82 decliners while 45 stocks were unchanged. There was a meager P35 million in net foreign buying for the day.

“Having started the month on a slightly positive note, equities will continue to attract funds away from fixed-income instruments as global risks are perceived to have waned. Furthermore, the recent drop in prices have not only created blue-chip and second-line bargains but has narrowed the spread between alternative returns on equities, on one hand, and competing assets, on the other,” said Justino Calaycay Jr., dealer at local stocks brokerage Accord Capital Equities Corp.

The index was led higher by Metrobank, Security Bank, Banco de Oro, Megaworld, ICTSI, Ayala Land, SM Prime, Aboitiz Power, SM Investments, BPI, Alliance Global and AEV.

Meanwhile, aside from telecom giant PLDT and mining stock Lepanto, EDC capped the PSEi’s gains. There was also profit-taking on San Miguel Corp., Boulevard Holdings and Manila Mining.

Calaycay said local stocks remained relatively undervalued particularly when viewed in the context of a surge in global recovery. Doris C. Dumlao