Philippine stock prices rose on Thursday and briefly breached the key 6,900 level on expectations that a government report Friday on inflation will remain within expectations, an analyst said. The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) ended the session higher by 0.71 percent, or 48.71 points, to 6,899.31. The broader all-shares index also rose 0.62 percent, or 25.50 points, to 4,129.99.
All sub-counters were also up, with property firms leading gains at 1.03 percent. This was followed by the financial subindex, up 0.80 percent, and industrial firms, up 0.74 percent.
“There were some brave investors who positioned ahead of the inflation report,” First GradeFinance Inc. managing director Astro del Castillo said in an interview on Thursday.
Still, he noted that value turnover was slightly below average, meaning most investors stayed on the sidelines.
“We still expect cautious trading in the coming days,” he said.
A total of 1.34 billion shares valued at P7.57 billion changed hands on Thursday, data from the Philippine Stock Exchange showed. A total of 108 companies gained on Thursday, while 76 ended in the red and 43 closed unchanged.
Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co. led the roster of most actively traded stocks, gaining 0.74 percent to P3,000 a share on Thursday.
This was followed by Alliance Global Group Inc. (down 0.68 percent to P29.15), Universal Robina Corp. (up 1.69 percent to P156), SM Investments Corp. (up 0.06 percent to P809.50) and Bank of the Philippine Islands ( up 1.66 percent to P95.05). Miguel R. Camus