PSEi breaches 7,100

The local stock barometer extended its winning streak for the fourth trading session Friday, the last trading day of the so-called “ghost month,” closing above 7,100 for the first time this year.

Riding on a string of upbeat US economic data, the Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) racked up 36.6 points or 0.52 percent to close at 7,133.09. The index hit an intra-day high of 7,141.17, the peak so far this year despite a long weekend break ahead.

For the week, the PSEi gained a total of 124.58 points or 1.8 percent to trade at this year’s best level so far.

Filipino traders at Philippine Stock Exchange, Makati. AP FILE PHOTO

Only the mining/oil sub-index ended lower. Value turnover for the day amounted to P10.86 billion. There were 83 advancers against 79 decliners while 66 stocks were unchanged.

The PSE has seen follow-through buying since a MSCI rebalancing that boosted the weights of large-cap stocks like PLDT and Ayala Land led the index to break a psychological resistance at 7,000, notwithstanding concerns on lofty valuations. The next resistance is seen at 7,200.

The market will be closed on Monday (Aug. 25) in celebration of National Heroes Day. While investors are typically cautious ahead of long holiday breaks, investors put more weight on a series of positive US economic reports, including the latest housing and manufacturing gauges, while political tension in Ukraine has eased.

Alliance Global Group Inc. and Globe Telecom were among the PSEi’s top advancers, both rising more than 3 percent. AGI has rebounded from the selling in the last few days as investors digested the sluggish earnings of gaming and hard liquor units while Globe listed yesterday new preferred shares from which it raised P10 billion.

Megaworld, Metrobank, EDC and ICTSI also aided the upswing, all gaining more than 1 percent.

Airline operator Cebu Air gained 2.26 percent in heavy trade. It was reported yesterday that carrier Cebu Pacific had ranked 99th out of 313 airlines on FlightView’s global on-time performance (OTP) report for June, beating all other local carriers.

On the other hand, PLDT and ALI fell on profit-taking after leading the recent run-up as fund managers tracked the latest MSCI rebalancing. Doris C. Dumlao