Shares rally on bargain hunting

Philippine shares rallied on Thursday as bargain hunters stepped in and Asian equities ended in the green.

The Philippine Stock Exchange benchmark index rose 1.01 percent, or 68.20 points, to 6,830.58 while the broader shares index was also up 0.81 percent, or 32.78 points, to 4,073.72.

Holding companies, up 1.01 percent, led gains for subindices, which all closed positive. It was followed by the industrial and services subsectors.

“[United States] Fed minutes showing the body is deep in discussions on the eventual exit strategy and normalization of policy and a number of earnings that either topped estimates or showed narrower contractions boosted US stocks wiping out all the previous session’s losses,” Justino Calaycay Jr. of Accord Equities said in a report.

He said this backdrop was key in pushing the PSEi back above the 6800 line.

“The Asian region is likewise covered in a sea of green led by more than 1 percent gains in the Australian and Japanese market,” Calaycay added.

Data from the PSE showed that a total of 876.37 million shares changed hands valued at P8.86 billion. A total of 106 firms rose yesterday against 68 decliners while 41 ended unchanged, data from the PSE showed.

Henry Sy’s BDO Unibank Inc. led the most actively traded issues, as it dipped 0.11 percent to P87 per share.

This was followed by Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. (up 0.55 percent to P2,900), Ayala Corp. (up 1.32 percent to P654), Puregold Price Club (up 0.84 percent to P41.95) and Megaworld Corp. (up 0.66 percent to P4.57). Miguel R. Camus