PSEi hits 9-month high

The local stock market rallied sharply Monday to breach the 6,700 level and finish at its strongest level for this year on rosy first-quarter local corporate outlook.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 96.33 points or 1.44 percent to close at 6,767.51, led by the services and property counters.

The local stock market is now trading at its highest level in nine months.

Manny Cruz, chief strategist at Asiasec Equities, said there was a breakout from a key resistance level at 6,690.

“Foreign funds are positioning for first-quarter 2014 corporate earnings,” Cruz said. “We are looking (next) at 6,830.”

Value turnover amounted to P8.87 billion. There were 123 gainers that overwhelmed 54 decliners while 39 stocks were unchanged.

All counters were up but the biggest gainers were the services and property counters, which surged more than 2 percent.

Investors snapped up blue chips like PLDT, SM Prime and Metrobank, which all gained more than 3 percent, while Megaworld and Metro Pacific Investments rose 2 percent.

SM Investments Corp., the most actively traded stock for the day, was up 1.51 percent while Ayala Land and Petron likewise gained more than 1 percent.

BDO, Aboiti Equity Ventures, Alliance Global Inc., URC, Ayala Corp., BPI, Meralco and DMCI also contributed to the day’s gains.

Outside of PSEi stocks, those that gained in heavy volume were Emperador (+1.34 percent), Security Bank (+1.35 percent), Travellers (+3.83 percent) and DNL (+0.44 percent).

Across the region, trading was muted by concerns over the political tension in Ukraine. Doris C. Dumlao