Market recovers, up 58.15 points

MANILA, Philippines–The local stock barometer recovered Tuesday after a two-day decline, tracking regional markets which were mostly higher ahead of a US Federal Reserve Open Market Committee meeting.

The main-share Philippine Stock Exchange index added 58.15 points, or 0.75 percent, to close at 7,789.10.  Across the region, markets mostly firmed up on speculation that sluggish US economic data may prompt the US Fed to exercise caution on the timing of future rate hikes.

The day’s rebound was led by the interest rate-sensitive property counter which surged by 1.99 percent

The financial, industrial, holding firm and mining/oil counters also posted modest gains.  The services counter ended slightly lower.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P9.31 billion.  There were 93 advancers which edged out 85 decliners, while 41 stocks were unchanged.

Leading the property counter higher were ALI and SM Prime which both surged by over 2 percent while Megaworld also  rose by over 1 percent.

EDC, Semirara, AGI, JG Summit and MPI all advanced by over 1 percent while AC, AP, URC, SMIC, Jollibee and Meralco also firmed up.

On the other hand, GTCAP declined by 1.13 percent while banking arm Metrobank slipped by 0.22 percent.  Index heavyweight PLDT was down by 0.9 percent.–Doris C. Dumlao