PSEi up 57.97 points, closes above 7,800

MANILA, Philippines–The local stock barometer on Thursday firmed up above 7,800, tracking the upswing in Wall Street on hints that the US Federal Reserve may not rush into raising interest rates.

The Philippine Stock Exchange index was sluggish in early trade but recovered in the afternoon, gaining 57.97 points or 0.75 percent to close the session at 7,814.55.

Overnight, US stocks surged after the US Federal Open Market Committee–at the end of a two-day policy meeting–suggested that it would be “patient” on future interest rate increases.

The closely tracked Dow Jones Industrial Average was up by 1.3 percent or 227.11 points. The gains were led by the financial, property and services counters, which all went up by over 1 percent.  The holding firm sub-index was only slightly higher while the industrial and mining/oil counters both slipped.

Value turnover for the day amounted to P12.21 billion.  There were 93 advancers that edged out 88 decliners while 44 stocks were unchanged.

PLDT, AGI, BDO, JG Summit and Bloomberry powered up the PSEi, all rising by over 2 percent.  ALI, AC and Globe Telecom gained by over 1 percent.

Investors also picked up shares of Metrobank, URC, GTCAP and SM Prime.

Meanwhile, AP fell by over 2 percent while EDC and SMIC also ended lower.–Doris C. Dumlao