Local stock index breaks 7,200

MANILA, Philippines — The local stock index breached the 7,200 mark for the first time this year on Wednesday as a string of favorable local news reports boosted risk-taking alongside mostly buoyant regional markets.

Rising for the third straight session to reach the peak so far this year, the Philippine Stock Exchange index rallied by 99.46 points or 1.4 percent to close at 7,206.02. The index closed near the intra-day high of 7,216.41.

Astro del Castillo, managing director at fund management firm First Grade Finance Corp., attributed the day’s upswing to a “litany of good news during the past few days from Moody’s economic upgrade, jump in WEF (World Economic Forum competitiveness) ranking and South Korea’s NICE (National Information & Credit Evaluation) credit outlook fueled the momentum of the market.”

“The mood of the market is starting to reflect the joyous ‘ber’ Christmas season,” Del Castillo said.

All counters were up, led by the financial, industrial, services and property counters, which all surged by over 1 percent.

Turnover amounted to P11.26 billion.

The day’s upswing was led by index heavyweight PLDT (+2.87 percent) and URC (+3.65 percent).

ALI, Jollibee and Bloomberry also contributed substantial gains, all of them rising by over 2 percent, while AGI, Megaworld, EDC, BDO, Metrobank and DMCI all climbed by over 1 percent. Globe Telecom (+0.8 percent) also ended higher.

Outside of PSEi stocks, Nickel Asia (+5.03 percent) and Security Bank (+1.56 percent) gained in heavy volume.

On Nickel Asia, which was leading the run-up, Del Castillo said: “it seems like investors are seeing a better value of the company since they are venturing into renewable energy as well.”

On the other hand, Cosco (-1.09 percent) bucked the day’s upswing.

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