MANILA, Philippines — The local stock barometer crept higher for the fifth straight session on Thursday as semester-end window-dressing activities and fresh optimism on the US economy fueled a breakout from key resistance level.
The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index gained 57.5 points or 0.84 percent to close at 6,892.18, tracking mostly upbeat regional markets. The regional upswing was in turn due to expectations that the US economy may recover from last quarter’s contraction.
Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities Inc., said the market has broken out of a key resistance level at around 6,820 in the last two days. By hurdling heavy selling at these levels, the breakout has in turn encouraged buying and the next target would be to breach 6,900 by next week, he said.
All counters ended higher led by the services and mining/oil counters, which both rose by over 1 percent.
Value turnover was heavy at P21.96 billion including block transactions on PLDT, Meralco, URC, DMCI, ALI, SMPH and Nickel. There were 119 advancers that edged out 74 gainers while 40 stocks were unchanged.
The day’s upswing was led by index heavyweight PLDT (+2 percent), RLC (+2.16 percent) and Philex (+2.77 percent). URC and BDO were also up by over 1 percent.
ALI, SMIC, DMCI, BPI, Globe and AC also contributed to the day’s gains.
Outside of the main index, Nickel Asia (+3.8 percent) and Belle (+2.54 percent) gained in heavy volume.
On the other hand, GTCAP, Metrobank and FGEN ended lower. Outside of the PSEi, Puregold also slipped by 1.28 percent.
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