The local stock barometer climbed back to the 7,700 level to close at another record high for the year on Friday, buoyed by upbeat local corporate earnings alongside the overnight rebound in US stocks.
MANILA, Philippines–The local stock barometer climbed back to the 7,700 level to close at another record high for the year on Friday, buoyed by upbeat local corporate earnings alongside the overnight rebound in US stocks.
The Philippine Stock Exchange index (PSEi) gained 53.94 points or 0.7 percent to finish at the day’s peak of 7,728.18. This marked the PSEi’s 9th record closing so far in 2015.
Dealers said investors had taken their cue from the 211.86-point rise in the closely tracked Dow Jones Industrial Index. At the same time, the market cheered the initial stream of local corporate earnings results for the quarter ending December 2014. Some may also be positioning ahead of the next rebalancing of the MSCI index.
“We are pleased with the market’s movement in the last five weeks. The record numbers registered by the index highlights the level of investor confidence in our market. We hope that our initiatives to raise awareness about investing at the PSE to fund managers here and abroad will see more investment inflows into our market,” PSE president Hans Sicat said in a press statement.
In Wall Street, US stocks were perked up overnight by a recovery in oil prices by over 4 percent.
At the local market, the day’s rebound was led by the industrial, mining/oil and property counters which all advanced by over 1 percent. Only the financial counter was in the doldrums.
Value turnover for the day amounted to P10.42 billion. There were 105 advancers that beat 72 decliners while 43 stocks were unchanged.
URC was the day’s most actively traded stock. The Gokongwei-led firm aided the PSEi’s rise, advancing by 3.43 percent. URC reported on Friday a net profit of P3.25 billion in the quarter ending December 2014, the first three months in its fiscal year.
Globe Telecom likewise surged by 3.84 percent after earlier announcing a “banner” year in earnings for 2014. The telecom firm reported on Thursday a 25-percent rise in core net profit to P14.5 billion for 2014 while revenues grew by 9 percent to a record-high P99 billion.
SM Prime was likewise up by 2.6 percent while DMCI gained 1.91 percent.
SMIC, PLDT, Semirara, ALI, JG Summit, Megaworld and MPI also contributed to the day’s gains.
On the other hand, LTG shares pulled back by 2.53 percent on profit-taking.
The PSEi has now gained by a total of 6.9 percent since the start of the year.