Stocks rebound; main index back to 6,900 level

Most local stocks rebounded sharply Monday, bringing the main index back to the 6,900 level, as last Friday’s rally in Wall Street perked up regional markets.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 76.32 points or 1.11 percent to close at 6,956.66.

The day’s upswing was led by holding firms, services and property counters, which all gained more than 1 percent.

There were 104 advancers that beat 73 decliners while 46 stocks were unchanged. Value turnover amounted to P9.89 billion.

“The market ended up strongly and with good value turnover, mirroring the mostly positive sentiment in the region. Foreign funds reentered the market, buying back most of what they sold the past two weeks. While it seems to me that there will be a push past 7,000 in the next few days, current valuations are still rich,” said Manny Lisbona, deputy chief at PNB Securities.

Joseph Roxas, president of Eagle Equities, said the day’s rebound was due to the Dow Jones index, which surged 185.66 points to 16,553.93 on Friday as geopolitical tensions eased. At the same time, he said, good earnings reports such as from the banks helped to keep the market afloat.

The PSEi was led higher by Megaworld, which rose 3.26 percent as the property developer reported a 289-percent jump in six-month net profit to P11.62 billion due to extraordinary gains from a group-wide property consolidation.

JG Summit, PLDT and Ayala Corp. all gained over 2 percent. Shares of Ayala Land, which reported a 25-percent growth in six-month net profit, went up by 1.14 percent. URC, SM Prime, DMCI and Petron all went up by 1 percent while Globe, SMIC, BPI, Metrobank and EDC also contributed gains.

Outside of the PSEi stocks, Sinophil (3.16 percent) gained in heavy volume. Doris C. Dumlao