Shares continue to climb

Philippine stocks ended at a new record high Friday following a decision by the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas to keep key interest rates on hold.

The benchmark Philippine Stock Exchange index closed up 0.09 percent,

or 6.86 points, to 7,877.96. The broader all-shares index also ended higher by 0.20 points to 4,546.40.

This is the 21st time the PSEi hit a record high in 2015, data from the PSE showed.

Trading volume was lighter than average, with about 1.74 billion shares valued at P7.45 billion changing hands. Losers outnumbered gainers, 97 to 76, while 47 companies closed unchanged.

Subsectors also came in mixed on Friday. Holding firms and services closed in the red as they declined 0.22 percent and 0.31 percent, respectively. Gainers were led by the property subindex, which rose 0.6 percent followed by financials, up 0.25 percent.

The list of most actively traded stocks was led by Universal Robina Corp., up 1.47 percent to P221.20 a share. It was followed by Metropolitan Bank and Trust, which lost 0.31 percent to P97.30, Ayala Corp., which closed unchanged at P780, Philippine Long Distance Telephone Co., which lost 0.28 percent to P2,830 and Energy Development Corp., which gained 0.12 percent to P8.50 a share. Miguel R. Camus